The attacker against whom you are training your (rather defensive) moves is short, much unlike real-life attackers who are above 6 feet tall.

Strangely, the attacker is always male, but you can pick sex of avatars for your instructor who is showing you the moves (I picked female).

You can also chose for your avatar (I picked male naturally).

The instructor is showing you defensive moves, that you have to repeat, first only 1, then 2 and then 3 and 4. First without time limits and then within given time.

Apart from self-defense training per se,

where you can track progress,

you can do cardio exercise, without self-defense elements.

This usually involves just aerobic-like movements.

Summary

Obviously this game cannot replace proper self-defense or martia arts training, but you can learn sequences of moves that can free you from attackers in some critical moments, so it is worth every cent spent on it. Obviously it delivers some physical exercise too but contrary to proper martial arts or fighting games it is rather a mild game, not aggressive enough for many martial arts -loving boys.

Conclusion

Xbox Kinect is still in early days, but upcoming Xbox 720 with built-in Kinect with higher precision, and with new games, things will yet get improved, particularly the precision of tracking that is still not optimal. Self-Defense Training Camp for Xbox Kinect is a cute little game and while it may not appeal to hard core martial arts lovers, it can give you some fun and can train you some useful moves…

Porkchop and Mouse is a delightful story with beautiful pictures. You (or your child) can turn the pages forwards or backwards to move through the story just like a paper bound book.

The story moves you through Porchop’s hunt for the poor mouse who took up residency in his house. They go through a range of beautifully illustrated landscapes before landing back at home. Each page not only gives you a visual treat, but often gives you a surprise or two on the page. For example, on the first page is a picture of a piano in the living room. Tapping on the piano brings up a keyboard that you can actually play.

The downside is that the interactive extras are inconsistent. You never know what to click on, and it can get frustrating for small children to keep touching things until something happens…or they run out of things to tap.

Porkchop and Mouse has three reading options. Sit back and let the narrator read to you, read it yourself, or record yourself and then listen to your voice read through the story. I love this flexibility and it reminds me of my own childhood when my mother would read a book so often that I could recite it back with all her inflection.

I actually learned to read this way. Porkchop and Mouse can help here too, because another outstanding feature is the ability to click on any word, highlight it, and have the one word read for recognition. This is whole language learning at its finest, and guaranteed to entertain your children.

My big complaint with Porkchop and Mouse is that the pages turn by themselves if you don’t hurry and do it yourself. This takes away the one constant a child has for reading – turning the pages.

Overall, this is a wonderful children’s book that you can share with your child, or let him read on his own. You can find it in iTunes for $.99 – a real bargain for a book!

So, the big Apple announcement about eBooks, that touts to revolutionise eBooks is about 2 things: iBooks Author app for Mac (that I am not reviewing here) and iBooks version 2 to display the new kind of eBooks. I am reviewing here iBooks 2 together with 2 textbooks – one free (about Ecology made by green commies) and one commercial (Biology Textbook).

* * * * *

Right now the choice of textbooks is not big and consists of merely 8 items (available only at iTunes USA).

But you can also buy non-textbook eBooks in new multimedia/interactive format, including this one:

Generally these new eBooks consist of text and thumb images that lead to interactive and multimedia content (here: on the left side).

The “multimedia and interactive” content ranges from static (albeit high resolution) images like this:

to interactive presentations where interaction means “tapping various places to get more info.”

There are 3D models that can be rotated.

As usual in iBooks, users can highlight text.

But users can also memorize material with use of cards with questions and answers.

There are also multiple choice questions.

(BTW: note there that since many organisms didn’t leave fossils there might be aliens living once on our planet indeed!)

As you can see, these new eBooks are essentially mini-websites compressed into Apple-specific ZIP file and are not apps. That’s why some kinds of education like for example language learning, might still be better handled by apps rather than by this new kind of eBooks (I can imagine that e.g. apps with speech recognition could learn pronunciation of foreign languages, etc).

Yes, this is not some kind of revolutionary invention and Apple’s iBooks store didn’t get much traction by now, mainly because Amazon’s Kindle is available on all devices and not just on Amazon’s own Kindle devices, and Apple’s iBooks are “Apple devices only”. However I think that by going to schools and offering eBooks and iPad devices at discount prices, Apple could achieve some breakthrough.

I don’t know much about the free iBooks Author app for Mac but from what I have heard Apple explicitly forbids creation of eBooks for non-Apple platforms with it, so anyway, once again Apple-haters will have food for anti-Apple propaganda. One can criticise Apple for being closed but the matter of fact is that standards for eBooks are developing slowly and are fragmented: e.g. Kindle devices can’t read ePub with Adobe DRM but only DRM-free ePub format. Apple, by fostering this new interactive albeit proprietary eBook format, may in fact advance the whole eBook industry.

Conclusion: I’m not very impressed with this iBooks 2 “interactive, multimedia” eBooks but let’s say it’s a good first effort and there is room for improvement. Furthermore this new technology from Apple may spawn other companies like Amazon to also release interactive multimedia eBook formats.

The XStand from Brookstone holds your iPad either without a case, or with some cases. (Large cases like the Otterbox, or those with flip covers do not fit.) My iPad is currently in the XStand with no case, although the one I first saw was in a case.

The stand itself is beautiful, and worthy of holding an iPad. The base comes in black or red (I couldn’t resist the red), the arm is chrome, and the part that actually cradles the iPad is lucite. The corner pads are a soft plastic, and while they are a boring grey color, they won’t distract from an iPad whether in black or white.

Because you have the four plastic corners, installation is simple. Just set your iPad in the lower two corners, then lean it back and press until the top corners snap into place. This leaves you some wiggle room if your iPad is naked, but it’s not going anywhere.

The remarkable thing about the XStand is both its complete 360 degree swivel, and its almost 360 degree tilt. You can keep rotating your iPad in the stand, without ever having to reverse direction, moving easily from portrait to landscape. You can tilt your iPad so that you can view your screen at a 90 degree angle straight in front of your face, of 180 degrees so that it is as flat as if it were on a table top.

I’ve found that not only does the XStand work greatl on any table or desk, but it sits well in my lap as well. I can recline in my chair and not have to crane my neck to look down at my lap.

You can purchase the XStand from Brookstone for $49.95.

Tasker – Android Automation Gone Wild (~5.50 purchased from dev, ~6.50 purchased through market)
Tasker has been around a while, and much has been said about it, but I think it worth mentioning again.  This gem of an app allows the user to automate almost anything on the device – without root, and without being an Android (or any kind) of programmer.

The concept (and the UI) can be intimidating initially, but after a little poking around, the power becomes apparent.  As described on the Tasker web site, “Tasker performs Tasks (sets of actions) based on Contexts (application, time and/or date, location, events) in user-defined Profiles or home screen widgets.”  From something as simple as turning the screen off automatically if you place the phone face-down to as complicated as a fully-functional alarm clock with snooze, or even automated NANDROID backups, Tasker can replace the functionality of several applications, saving you valuable space on your device.

In addition, Tasker can improve battery life in several ways.  First, by replacing several applications with the functionality of Tasker, there are fewer programs running in the background.  Second, you can use Tasker to automate turning on and off different services – like turning on GPS when opening Google Maps, and off when exiting, or turning on your WiFi automatically when you get to certain locations, and off again when you leave.

My Tasker Profiles

Things I’ve done with Tasker:
Automatically change my sound “profile” (ringer, notification, system volumes) at different times of the day, complete with an emergency volume over-ride if certain individuals call at night (I have teenagers and an aging mother).
A widget that “remembers” what sound profile was active and toggles between that and silence (great for meetings any time of day).
A custom alarm clock that wakes me exactly the way I want to be wakened (I am NOT a morning person).
A second alarm clock that only rings on specified Saturdays, for an enrichment education class that I teach.
Change the screen timeout if the device is plugged in; turn the screen off if the device is placed face-down.
Start my WiFi when I get (near) home, turn it off when I leave.

The direct purchase version offers an additional feature not available in the market version, and that is file encryption.  Although I purchased the direct version, I have not tried this yet.

Despite the struggle of learning the concepts (and, to some extent, navigating the UI), Tasker can be well worth your time.  The Tasker website also has a WIKI with numerous walk-thoughs and downloadable examples, graded by difficulty, which can be accessed directly from the UI.  The UI also allows you to backup and restore your data.

Smart Shortcuts – A smarter folder alternative(Free)

"Tools" Smart Shortcut

Android FROYO introduced the ability to create folders to organize applications and other shortcuts.  Smart Shortcuts does this, but handles them much better.  For example, if you install a new application and want to add it to your games folder, using the built in folders in Android, this new application will be sorted at the end of the list, irrespective of where it belongs alphabetically.  Without recreating the entire folder, you cannot change this.

Smart Shortcuts will automatically sort your new application alphabetically when you add it to an existing shortcut (folder).  Also, with Smart Shortcuts, you can change the icon associated with each shortcut.  Except in Go Launcher EX, I haven’t found any other launchers that let you do this to Android folders.  Further, if you uninstall an application, then later re-install it, Smart Shortcuts remembers what category(-ies) you had previously assigned, and automatically puts the application back into its respective shortcut(s).

In addition to creating application shortcuts, you can create bookmark, contact, file/folder and “freestyle” shortcuts.  Freestyle shortcuts are simply shortcuts that have a mixture of application, bookmark, contact or file/folder links.

Smart Shortcuts has a simple, intuitive interface for managing your shortcuts.  This interface also allows you to backup and restore your settings.

MultIcon – Vacuum-pack your shortcuts (Free)

My home screen

If you are like me, you prefer having the things you do the most immediately at your fingertips, rather than scrolling through several pages of launcher screens to find what you are looking for.  This nifty, intuitive little application allows you to put multiple shortcuts in a single “space” on your home screen.

The default is to place 4 shortcuts in a single space, and for most devices, this is probably a comfortable number.  Further, for each of the widget styles available, you can configure the number of columns and rows available when you create the widget.  For example, on the 1×1 widget, you can configure it to have up to 36 spots (3 columns and 12 rows).  On a phone, this is entirely too many (the icons are almost too tiny to see, much less select accurately), and even on a tablet this is a bit extreme, unless you are able to “stretch” the widget, or configure the number of rows and columns (of the home screen) it occupies.  Even at 4 links per widget, however, you can quadruple the number of spaces available on your home screen.

If you don’t want to use all the “spaces” created by a MultIcon widget, you can set them to blanks – I like to use every other spot, so that my icons are staggered diagonally.  Until you define what goes in each space, touching the space will launch the manager, which allows you to specify what to want in that spot.  After the spaces are all assigned, if you want to change what is there, you can open the application and select “Edit Widgets”, which places all the widgets into a modifiable state.

In addition to shortcuts for applications, you can place other shortcuts (including Smart Shortcuts, Tasker Task widgets, Playlists, individual mailboxes, direct dial or direct text links and several others, depending on what is installed on your device), and several control toggle-widgets (WiFi, Airplane Mode, BlueTooth, etc, and even a toggle for edit mode).

The downside to Smart Shortcuts and MultIcon is that they do run in the background, and therefore are a drain on your battery. However, I have found the drain negligible, and the benefit of making my device work better for me is worth the trade-off.

Not all the best things in life are free, but two out of three ain’t bad!

My friend Leanna over at TiPb recommended the Wacom stylus, but I just couldn’t bring myself to spend $30 for what looked exactly like every other stylus out there. So I kept looking until I stumbled upon the Jot stylus from Adonit. While they have both a Jot and Jot Pro model, I figured I could get away without the rubber grip on the pro model, and still get a stylus for $20.

The Jot comes in a variety of colour options: I chose red. The barrel is smooth aluminum, and fairly chunky – certainly more so than an ordinary Bic style pen. I was pleased that the vanity embossing is small and unobtrusive on the Jot stylus. At the end is imprinted “Jot” and at the same end, but opposite side of the barrel, “Adonit.”

The Jot stylus comes with a cap that screws onto the end when you’re using it. It’s a great little feature that will protect the tip when you want to toss the stylus into your purse, pocket, or briefcase to take with you. Bizarre note here. The Jot stylus comes in a hard plastic package. While it was easy enough to remove the stylus, the cap was separate. I pulled and pulled but could not remove the cap from the package. Finally I tried twisting it out, and realized it was turning. It had been screwed into a plastic piece, so I laboriously unscrewed it and removed it from the packaging. Once I had the cap removed, I saw the notice beneath where the cap had been informing “unscrew cap to remove.” It would have made more sense to me to put this notice on top, where you could see it prior to attempting to get it out of the package.

The tip of the Jot stylus is what sets this stylus apart from all the other capacitive screen styli available on the market. Instead of having a bulbous rubber tip, the Jot ends in a point that looks like any pen and a tiny metal ball bearing that fits into a flat plastic disk.

The flat plastic disk allows you to slide smoothly across your touch screen, and because it’s opaque, allows you a better view of where on the screen you’re touching, than you can possibly get with the more common round rubber end.

Because the disk is on a ball bearing, you also have a good bit of flexibility as to how to position your stylus on your screen. Movement is fluid, and this is the perfect companion to writing or drawing apps on your tablet.

Pick one up for yourself in red, yellow, or green for $19.99. Or go for the Pro in gun metal, silver, or turquoise, with the rubber grip for $29.99. That extra ten dollars not only gets you a rubber grip, but the Pro attaches magnetically to the side of an iPad 2 or other tablet with magnetized bezel.

When you study languages in school, a popular method is through “thematic units.” With this method, we pick a theme, and then study vocabulary and culture that fit within the theme.

This can be particularly challenging at the intermediate levels, where students have the basic skills, but need to build their vocabulary.

Using the app “7 Jours” can build on existing skills, improve vocabulary skills, and keep students “au courant” while having fun. Both vocabulary and listening skills are emphasized by using short news stories.

Depending on your preference, you can begin by simply watching and listening to the news story. You can read along with it to assist with comprehension. Throughout the news item are vocabulary words that are not commonly taught, or perhaps peculiar to the subject associated with the news item.  These words are highlighted in the script. Sometimes it’s easier to guess the meaning of a new word if you can see it as well as hear it in context.

There is also a complete list of vocabulary associated with the news item. Frequently, new words are taught first, and then presented in context so that students can appreciate their use once they have learned their meanings.

While this is a great method for introducing new vocabulary, it does presume that students are already familiar with a great deal of more general vocabulary, as well as syntax and grammar used in the news items. This is why I suggest that this be used with intermediate (or advanced) language learners.

7 Jours offers 3 new items each week, and each item is divided for your learning into categories and themes.  Every vocabulary word includes authentic pronunciation, the English translation, and an example of its use based on the context it was taken from.

The clips are short, and the narratives are clear. They are well chosen, and should keep almost anyone’s attention. Whether you are looking to improve your own French, or help a student of your own, 7 Jours is a great tool. The “7 jours sur la planète” application is the ideal partner to the interactive exercises that TV5MONDE provides free of charge to all French learners at http://www.tv5monde.com/7jours.

One of the more unique features of this app is the multiplayer mode on the vocabulary game where you are head to head with an opponent to properly spell out the French word when given the English definition. The game even ties into Apple’s Game Center. There are a number of types of games included to assist in making language learning enjoyable.

While this app definitely looks better on the iPad, it is a universal binary and will work on iPhone and iPod Touch as well.

You can find it in iTunes, and purchase for $4.99.

Obviously the best of all possible worlds is a children’s book on an iPad. Most children still view the iPad as a toy – a way to play games. What’s wrong with them thinking that reading a book is a game? Not a thing! The means to this end is beautiful pictures that children can scroll through, while being read a  delightful story.

No pages to turn, so even the youngest children can see the natural order of the story – top to bottom.

The pictures themselves seem to blend from one frame to the next, as the bottom becomes the top as you scroll down.

The story itself is one that should be read aloud. It is a not just a beginner reader. Children will enjoy being able to scroll through the original pictures as they are read the story.

This is the story of Hagar the Harfowl. Harfowls, we learn, live in trees. And Hagar is the little Harfowl who is the hero of the story and the other Harfowls.

I don’t want to give the story away, but like most stories for children, it has a moral.

If you have small children, this is the kind of quality time you owe them. Curl up with a good book today – and let your children play with it.

Purchase in iTunes for $1.99.

Enter the Cobra Universal Cigarette Lighter Mount. One word of caution, check the location of your cigarette lighter power inputs before looking at this type of mount. Placement is important. My last car was a Toyota Camry, where one lighter was hidden inside a cupboard low on the console, and the other was between the shift and the arm rest. Neither of these were practical for a lighter based mount. Fortunately, placement is more standard on my Kia Soul, and the Cobra Universal Mount is a nice fit.

The mount plugs right into the lighter socket. No clips, no glue required. It’s quite sturdy, and should be able to hold the weight of most cell phones.

It is a “goose neck” type, so it offers flexibility as to position. You can angle it down, or to one side, depending on where the lighter is in your vehicle.

In addition to having two “feet” on which you can rest your phone, the back has Ever-Last BreakAway Adhesive. That is a sticky slab of…sticky stuff. It leaves no residue on your phone, and holds tight.

As a matter of fact, you need two hands to get your phone off that adhesive back. You absolutely don’t have to worry about your phone falling off the mount and on to the floor of your car. I don’t know for sure how long the adhesive lasts, but Cobra suggests that you can just wipe the surface clean with a basic glass cleaner to revive the stick.

The part where you stand your phone is attached by a locking collar so you can rotate your view left or right. This means you can also turn your phone from your view to whoever’s in the passenger seat.

The only real negative is that the base is circular. And circles roll – it’s a matter of physics. So if you apply too much pressure, the whole top (with your phone) acts like a lever and slides around and down.  Of course, once you have adjusted your mount, you generally don’t need to move it much, so there

won’t be many opportunities for this to happen.

One of the unique features of this mount is the usb port. After all, you’re taking up a power supply, so it’s nice to be able to still use it. There’s even an indicator that it’s receiving power from the plug.

At $29.95 for the mount, it’s a pretty average price. If you’re looking for a mount for your car, and don’t want to block the vents, this is a great option that is both sturdy and portable.

Check out Cobra’s video below.

Untitled from Blake Miller on Vimeo.

Here comes Flipboard – previously available only on the iPad – and now also released for iPhone! Flipboard is free and it aggregates articles from websites.

While the iPad version of this app flips from right to left, the iPhone version flips from top to bottom.

You can use this app account-less or you can sign-in via a Flipboard account.

You can also sign in via Twitter or Facebook.

Here are the standard category picks:

The home screen reminds me slightly of the tile-based home screen of Windows Phone 7.5 (the operating system made by baboons for baboons).

Upon signing-in via Twitter you can see your Twitter stream.

Of course, for posting you need a separate Twitter client.

Strangely, I have encountered pages that are not (!) browsable via flipping but only via scrolling.

When I occasionally dropped out of 3G coverage to 2G/EDGE the loading was slower and the user interface almost frozen.

While browsing you can share given article in various ways.

One nice feature is that you can check the app version in the about screen:

Conclusion

Flipboard is a nice way to consume information, and thanks to pre-selected choice of news from areas of general world news and tech news, you can be entertained. I am, however, not convinced that “flipping” through pages is really that exciting, but since this app is free, you should give it a try and see if you enjoy it. I am also uncertain regarding business model of this app – it may switch to paid subscription model or get in-app ads or some other way. I wish makers of Flipboard would be clear about their plans regarding business model. In all however this is cute little app.

To get Flipboard (universal app, works both iPad and iPhone; price: FREE) tap here: Flipboard for iOS.