Some great items for back-to-school that come in under $100 include (From BestBuy):

• Sony wireless headphone for the transit rider ($99.00)

Sony’s Walkman Wearable MP3 player fuses headphones with a 2GB MP3 player into one sleek device that’s perfect for cruisin’ on the bus or skytrain or riding the new Canada Line. Its lightweight design and exceptional sound quality is perfect for walking or riding to and from school or campus. Listening to the latest tunes will help pass the time. A bonus for the busy student is the quick-charge charger which gives a 90-minute charge in just 3 minutes!

• Motorola Bluetooth Headset ($49.99)

The ideal blend of clarity and comfort for conversations on the go. Whether you’re racing across campus or riding the 99 B-line, the H560 automatically reduces background noise and adjusts volume, improving call clarity on both sides of the conversation. TrueComfort design helps ensure a snug and secure fit. Life on the go just took a major step forward.

• Olympus FE-25 Digital Camera – $99.99

If you’re a first-time photographer, the Olympus FE-25 is a no-fuss camera. With 10MP and 3x optical zoom, face detection and 16 different shooting modes, which optimize the camera’s settings for just about any situation.

• SimpleTech SimpleDrive 500GB 3.5″ External Hard Drive – $94.99

A high-performance external hard drive that gives you 500GB of storage capacity for all your essays and project backups with loads of room leftover to include music, videos, photos and more. You can never be too careful backing up your school works.

Kensington PocketMouse Mini Wireless Mouse – $29.99
A mini wireless mouse can make classroom life so much easier

Duracell Capless 8GB USB Flash Drive – $39.99 These inexpensive flash drives are great for just about anything. Back up school work, share music, movies and photos.

Flip Ultra HD – http://ca.theflip.com/products_flip_ultra.shtml#scene=sceneUltraHD ($250) camcorder – 2 hours of HD recording, great for taping a lecture. All you need is a Flip camera and a little tripod (ie. GorillaPod http://joby.com/gorillapod/ )
- the Flip Ultra comes with rechargeable battery and HDMI output so you can playback your recordings straight onto a HD TV!
- the Flip can also be a webcam for your laptop. Just attach it via USB to your computer, set it as your video recording source and start broadcasting live over the internet!

Netbooks

If you’re looking for a cheap laptop for the school year and don’t require all the features and high-power performances of a full computer, then consider purchasing a Netbook. These small, low-cost, low-power systems have become very popular over the past year and here are some of my suggestions.

The Basics: Intel Atom CPU, 1GB of RAM, a 16GB or larger SSD drive, and Windows XP, wifi and/or Bluetooth as a preferred option for tethering a smart phone for mobile broadband access.

Extras: SD card reader slots, extra USB ports, expansion slots for ExpressCards, onboard stereo speakers, touch screen.

Top choices:
HP Mini 5101 – http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaigns/mini1000/index.html#/XPPhotoGallery/ ($529cdn) excellent keyboard and touch pad; sturdy and durable; includes accelerometer. 160GB SSD, 10.1″ display, 802.11n wifi, Bluetooth, Windows Vista Home edition.

Asus Eee PC – http://eeepc.asus.com/ca/products.html?n=0 ($450cdn) longer battery life (6.5 hours), 160GB HDD, 10.1″ display, 802.11n wifi, bluetooth, Windows XP Home, SRS Premium Sound speakers (5.1 surround sound).

Acer Aspire One - http://www.acer.com/aspireone/aspireone_8_9/ ($399cdn) lower price, 10.1″ 160GB HDD, Windows XP Home, 802.11g wifi, bluetooth. The Aspire One has a slower processor and weaker battery life (3 hours).

Special:
Asus Eee PC T91 – http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?modelmenu=1&model=2851&l1=24&l2=164&l3=0&l4=0 ($599) incorporates a touch screen which can transform into a tablet. 8.9″ display, up to 5 hours battery life, 802.11n wifi, Bluetooth, Windows XP Home. The computer only has 16GB SSD, with expandable 16GB SD. Also has a slower processor than the new Netbooks.

Key Point in Choosing a Laptop for Back to School

Information sourced from; reviews.cnet.com, www.notebookreview.com, and www.futureshop.ca.

Students may want various features when looking for a new laptop. These may include:

• Wi-Fi & Bluetooth capabilities
• Preferred OS platform
• Speed and performance while running office productivity and content creation application
• Display and screen quality
• Hardware and multimedia features
• Speakers
• Battery life
• Weight and Portability
• Price
• Tech Support

http://laptops.toshiba.com/laptops/satellite/E105

Toshiba E105-S1602

Specifications:

Price                                 $799.99

Processor:                         Intel Core 2 Duo (2 GHz)

RAM installed:                   4 GB DDR2 SDRAM

Hard drive                          size: 500 GB

The good:

Sturdy construction and pleasing overall design; comfortable keyboard and touch pad; backlit keys; lengthy battery life without bulky battery; a twice-as-nice two-year warranty.

The bad:

Uses integrated graphics while other laptops at this price feature dedicated graphics; poor speakers, even for integrated standards.

The bottom line:

Toshiba improves on last year’s excellent Best Buy Blue Label laptop by slashing the price while serving up a nearly identical machine. Long battery life, a lengthy warranty, and a backlit keyboard highlight Toshiba’s winning Satellite E105-S1602.

Was given a rating of 3.5 / 5 stars (Cnet.com)

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/ca/en/ho/WF06b/321957-321957-3329744-64354-64354-3945119-3983196.html

HP Pavilion DV3-2100

Price                                 $729.99

Processor                          Intel Core 2 Duo (2.1 GHz) ;

RAM installed:                   4 GB DDR2 SDRAM ;

Hard drive                          size: 500 GB ;

The good

Nearly day-long battery life; compact design; includes small Media Center remote control; imprint finish helps it stand out from the laptop crowd.

The Bad

Massive nine-cell battery is awkward and uncomfortable; lacks 802.11n Wi-Fi and Gigabit Ethernet; glossy touch pad is uncomfortable.

The bottom line: Its massive battery extends awkwardly from the bottom of the laptop, but the HP Pavilion dv3-2155mx is an otherwise compact thin-and-light laptop that should get students to class and back on a single charge

The HP Pavilion dv3-2155mx comes with a 13.3 “ screen with movie and HD friendly 16:9 aspect ratio. It also sports a large nine-cell battery. It’s not much lighter than 14” models.

The nine-cell battery juts out of the bottom of the laptop by 0.75 inch, and its rounded shape makes a convenient handle when carrying about the laptop with the lid closed. However, the battery doesn’t run the whole length (only about three-quarters) of the laptop, so when the laptop is resting on your thighs, it lists to the right.

Rated 3 ½ / 5 stars (CNet)

http://www1.ca.dell.com/ca/en/home/Laptops/laptop-studio-1555/pd.aspx?refid=laptop-studio-1555&s=dhs&cs=cadhs1

Dell Studio

Specifications:

Price                                 $799.00 (Dell Canada)

Processor:                         Intel Core 2 Duo (2.53 GHz) ;

RAM installed:                   8GB DDR2 SDRAM ;

Hard drive size:                 320 GB

Weight                              5.3lbs

The good: Compact, lightweight design; great battery life; full version of Microsoft Office and 15 months of Norton Internet Security; wonderfully roomy keyboard; GeForce graphics provide some 3D power; decent audio output from integrated speakers; useful selection of ports.

The bad: No optical drive.

The bottom line: The Dell Studio S1440-022B has a ton of features and a slick design that should make it a frontrunner for any student doing their back-to-school shopping. Just one thing, you’d have to give up on a DVD burner.

The display measures 14.1 inches and features an extra-wide 16:9 aspect ratio that matches that of movies and HD video. It also features a glossy coating to create a fine balance of enhancing the view of movies and games, while keeping glare and reflections to a minimum.

Rated 4/5 stars (CNet)

Mac Laptops – If you’re a college student or a faculty or staff member at any grade level and you buy a new Mac through September 8, you can get a rebate coupon for a free iPod touch
Prices have really come down – and have special student prices.

Student Prices:   13″ MacBook $1099 -  2.13GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor – 2GB memory – 160GB 5400-rpm hard drive – NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor                                      13″ MacBook Pro $1299, 2.26GHz, 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB or 4GB memory, 160GB or 250GB 5400-rpm hard drive, NVIDIA 9400M graphics                           13″ MacBook Air $1629, 1.86GHz, 2.13GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor,2GB memory,120GB 4200-rpm hard drive or 128GB solid-state drive NVIDIA 9400M

Cell Phones
iPhone – students thinking of tethering their phone to their computer to have internet access anywhere (Beware the DATA plan charges)
Rogers is still the only carrier of the iPhone

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Summer is often about fixing things around the apartment, house, or cottage.

Here are some great sites to help you learn how to do just about anything.

http://www.wikihow.com/Cool-Yourself-Without-Air-Conditioning
You can participate and actually edit the Wiki entries

“One tried and true method is to wet your wrists and other pulse points with cold water, and then keep those spots cool by holding an ice cube wrapped in a face cloth against them. The relief is immediate, and this method will cool down the entire body—by as much as three degrees Fahrenheit—for upwards of an hour.”

http://answers.yahoo.com/ – lots of great information

You can read articles at places like http://www.howtodothings.com/

Find out :

* how to treat a mosquito bite
* how to block your cell phone number
* how to sew on a button

http://www.about.com/
http://www.ihowd.com/

are also good places for how-to articles

Or, if you learn better through videos – there are lots of choices.

http://www.5min.com/

- videos that will show you how to do almost anything in 5 minutes or less

* learn to restring a guitar
* make your own mosquito repellant
* money management tips

There are categories on the left hand side for everything from Arts, Business and Fashion to Sports and Video Games

You can even upload your own videos – what are you an expert at?

http://www.howcast.com/ – more obscure/cheekie how-tos – like how to use twitter, dating tips, there’s even a contest where you can win $ for sending in your own videos.

lifehacker.com is for the tech geeks in your life – here you’ll find all sorts of amazing information about the latest and greatest gadget hacks
howstuffworks.com – is a great resource for adults and kids alike.

For Home Improvement – check out
http://www.doityourself.com/
http://www.hometime.com/home.html

And don’t forget the most popular video site – Youtube – just type in your subject of choice

E.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsQIoPyfQzM – how to solve a rubik’s cube

You can even get parenting tips – like to how to get your kids to love reading at http://www.tipz.com/
There’s even how-to for your blackberry http://na.blackberry.com/eng/support/blackberry101/

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But, on to the big news – Google announced their latest innovation – Wave – today. Techcrunch has a great write up on it. If it’s half as good as they say it is – I can’t wait. It sounds like it’ll be taking the best of the Instant Messaging and Email worlds and enhances them with an interesting interface. Can’t wait.

And with Bing – Microsoft is trying to get back in the search game. There is lots of room to improve in the search world – so, I wouldn’t count them out yet.

Enjoy your day.

P

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I’m going to divert from a previous stance and disagree with Mark on this one, we don’t need a CSMO just like we didn’t need CBOs (Chief Blogging Officer) back in 2005-6. Hey, I was a CBO (CBO for Qumana Software) and looking back on it, I think it was a foolish way to draw attention to the importance of the medium as a communications tool.

Creating a new “Chief Whatever Officer” is a hard sell within companies. How long did it take for the CIO to be accepted? Five, Ten years? Yes, we think now that a CIO is key. Who else is going to manage our IT departments? IT is so key to our business…yeah we all know it wasn’t always that way. If memory serves IT grew out of R&D, Finance, and Engineering departments, folks who started to really crank on computers early on.

Is a CSMO any different? Won’t it become a business critical function? Yes, but I think it will become a business critical core competency not a job function. SocMed in a few years will become like using a computer, or email, or being web savvy. Isn’t it expected that you can ask pretty much anyone at a meeting or in an office to Google something, email an attachment or book a meeting online?

Wouldn’t you raise an eyebrow if a new employee said “What’s a Google?” or “Wow, I’ve never used email before…”? Heck I might find the person that hired them and smack them upside the head (“What are we going to do with a person who isn’t computer savvy in this office!?!”).

I think Twitter/microblogging, blogging, RSS, even basic social media monitoring will just be something everyone will need to know how to do. When? If you’re in a tech company, umm, a year ago? For everyone else? I think within three years, but if you want to have an edge over other potential hires, I’d say right, freakin’ now.

Social Media seems to be thriving in this economic downturn so if you can walk into an interview and show your employer how you quickly learned about the company, it’s competitors, and what people think about their brands, I’m betting you have a good shot at the job.

That doesn’t make you a CSMO, it makes you employable.

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Here’s what we did.

Jack connected one of our camera to just a basic projector (a light one). Of course we mounted the projector (with zap straps, though duct tape would have been cooler) to a hockey helmet (of course) so where ever the wearer looked, the image went. We projected onto walls, a very strange thing made out of corrugated plastic, and whatever we felt like.

The reactions from the crowd were pretty cool. Come on it’s pretty cool to see your self projected 1.5 stories tall on a building.

Don’t believe me? Check out the set:

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Here’s what’s going to happen. Moslon would like Canadians (of legal drinking age, of course) to submit a picture to the 2010 Molson Mural Project and over time the current Mural…

by Rebecca Bollwitt

Will be updated with more pictures and over the course of the next year what the message to our athletes will become clear.

Get going and upload because you only have until May to do it!

Expect the first change on the mural to be late spring or early summer.

Here is my Flickr set for the morning:

Now, from the social media side of things, this is awesome. Molson is reaching out to everyone in Canada to be a part of the 2010 Games.

Sure you might see this as hokey, but I see this as a great use of tech and the web. Come on, these photo mosaics are cool and this is going to be one of the largest ever.

Regardless of all the controversy I’m proud of this not to mention this is another sign that Molson really “gets it” with social media (while VANOC still doesn’t seem to).

Pity only Rebecca and I (and Dave Olson was walking by) were there from the social media scene to see it. I guess 9 AM is too early for the rest of you huh? .

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While it is vital to read the five as a whole, I take the fifth (”That no effort shall be spared to expand, develop and adapt the news and other services and products of Thomson Reuters so as to maintain its leading position in the international news and information business”) as an imperative for continual innovation and experimentation.

I have no idea what journalism will look like in five years except that it will be different than it is now. That’s a great thing, I believe.

I have little patience for those who cling to sentimental (and frankly inaccurate) memories of the good old halcyon days of journalism that were somehow purer and better than a world where tweets and blogs compete with news wires and newspapers.

Bring it on, I say!

Journalism is one of the great self-declared professions and crafts. I am a journalist because I said I was one more than two decades ago and have spent the years since working on my abilities. I am not one because I am somehow anointed with a certificate or an exam result.

link: Full Disclosure » Blog Archive » Twittering away standards or tweeting the future of journalism? | Blogs |

This post came out at the same time as Gillian Shaw of the Vancouver Sun has published a list of all the Twitter IDs of people at the paper. What do these have in common? These are news outlets–saying “newspapers” is far too limiting–that get it.

They’ve seen the handwriting on the wall, and they see that it’s adapt or become fish wrappers. The Vancouver Sun and Reuters aren’t the only news folks on Twitter of course. Almost all of our local news outlets are on Twitter and interacting with the community at large. What do we get? Headlines pushed to us. What do they get? News sources. Lots of news sources.

Gillian put out a request this week about the new media fund in the new budget. She needed social media/new media folks to interview. I don’t know how many she got in the end, but she got her story and some dandy quotes (If I may say so myself).

Now, what about news organizations and outlets that a baulking at Twitter and blogs tainting journalism? I think they should look back in history a bit and see where their roots really come from. Bunch of rabble-rousing folks who felt that there was a story to be told and would print it out for anyone who would care to read. Yeah I’m sure Ben Franklin’s paper was decried at first. Heck I think all newspapers were decried by the establishment at first.

Times have changed. Information is exchanged electronically and faster than the events themselves (which does lead to inaccurate information at times), journalism and journalists have to change as well.

Or be left behind.

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The eVaro is a gas-electric hybrid that can hit 200 km/hr with over 135 mpg, and still be able to do 0-60 in 5 seconds. Yeah 5 seconds.

Right now the prototype only has one seat, but check it out, it’s street legal! It is registered and insured with ICBC!

We have two pieces of video for you about the car, plus a slide show of these amazingly cool cars:

Future Vehicle Technologies is a privately-held company currently seeking additional funding to bring this car to market in a couple years.

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As you can see in this pun-filled introduction we might have been bright-eyed and bushy tailed, but maybe a wee concerned.

As it turns out we had nothing to fear because we connected up with a company based in Maple Ridge that is making an electric-powered sports car and a Vancouver-based geothermal energy company about to launch a power plant in Nevada.

Let’s get to the fun…

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Hey, was there anything interesting going on in the States this week?

I’m kidding of course because the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the US was not only huge news in the States, but around the world as well.

Social media played a pivotal role in Obama’s election, so it isn’t surprising that social media, and online video especially, would also figure prominently in his inauguration as well.

The CBC gave Bradley a ring this week for his take on this sea change in how we create and consume news and events. Here is what Bradley said in the CBC article:

User interactivity is becoming a key component in how people consume media online, said Bradley Shende, CEO of Media2o Productions, a Canadian company specializing in broadcast and online video production.

Video streaming “has been growing huge in the consumer space,” Shende told CBC News. “The more [people] consume, the more they become participants.” User-generated sites like YouTube.com have resulted in the “democratization of media,” he said.

Video is becoming the prevalent web format, said Shende, adding that while other features may attract people to a site, it is video that keeps them there.

[From Obama inauguration puts online video consumption into focus]

The more I’m working with online video, whether it’s the polished shows like ConnectedLife or the rough cut stuff that I do with a hand-held camera, the more I’m learning that we are truly changing the face of media.

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