T-Mobile Cameo Digiframe Price Drop in Time for Mother's Day

I’ve never owned a digiframe. Personally it’s a novelty that just never clicked with me, and correspondingly I have an external drive that is packed to the gills with images of friends and family, and vacations and trips I’ve taken. That leads me to Mom.

The eventual question that comes from her is what’s going on, and where are the pictures? I tell her that I’m going/have been here and there and am doing X, Y and Z. Most of this is pretty much Latin to her, but pictures, those are universal. I’ve tried sending her digital copies and links to sites where she can view them, but that’s never going to be terribly successful with founding members like herself of  pre-computer generation. I vaguely recall a glimmer of hope when I heard last year of T-Mobile’s network integrated Cameo Digiframe. It’s basically a frame with a phone number that updates with images and picture messages that you send it, or via memory card. Then I saw the price: $100 for the hardware and $9.99/month for the line. Uh, no. My Mom doesn’t even have a cell phone for emergencies. But wait, just in time for Mother’s Day it would seem that T-Mobile has gotten the hint.

According to a post on Engadget this morning, T-Mobile has dropped its prices to $40 for the frame and a monthly fee of $1.99. Now that’s a little bit different, now isn’t it. For a measly $24/year Mom can be clued in visually everything that is going on with me or anyone else for that matter. Who knows, after she vicariously becomes an expert in wireless technology she may even break down and accept a cell phone for the glove compartment. All kidding aside this is actually a pretty cool and affordable idea for anyone, especially Moms, who want to effortlessly keep up with other’s lives.

A few things about the Cameo. It unfortunately is only available through a physical visit to a T-Mobile store, but there are no contract obligations, it comes with unlimited message capability, can hold up to 500 standard sized images, allows for the blocking of individual senders and does not take up one of your allowed accounts if you have a family plan. All in all pretty nice. Mom is going to like it and I think I may too since I may just get one for myself as well.

Want to read more about T-Mobile’s Cameo Digiframe? ZDNet did a nice review of it yesterday. Check it out for more details.

–Tom Milnes

T-Mobile Cameo Digiframe Price Drop in Time for Mother's Day

I’ve never owned a digiframe. Personally it’s a novelty that just never clicked with me, and correspondingly I have an external drive that is packed to the gills with images of friends and family, and vacations and trips I’ve taken. That leads me to Mom.

The eventual question that comes from her is what’s going on, and where are the pictures? I tell her that I’m going/have been here and there and am doing X, Y and Z. Most of this is pretty much Latin to her, but pictures, those are universal. I’ve tried sending her digital copies and links to sites where she can view them, but that’s never going to be terribly successful with founding members like herself of  pre-computer generation. I vaguely recall a glimmer of hope when I heard last year of T-Mobile’s network integrated Cameo Digiframe. It’s basically a frame with a phone number that updates with images and picture messages that you send it, or via memory card. Then I saw the price: $100 for the hardware and $9.99/month for the line. Uh, no. My Mom doesn’t even have a cell phone for emergencies. But wait, just in time for Mother’s Day it would seem that T-Mobile has gotten the hint.

According to a post on Engadget this morning, T-Mobile has dropped its prices to $40 for the frame and a monthly fee of $1.99. Now that’s a little bit different, now isn’t it. For a measly $24/year Mom can be clued in visually everything that is going on with me or anyone else for that matter. Who knows, after she vicariously becomes an expert in wireless technology she may even break down and accept a cell phone for the glove compartment. All kidding aside this is actually a pretty cool and affordable idea for anyone, especially Moms, who want to effortlessly keep up with other’s lives.

A few things about the Cameo. It unfortunately is only available through a physical visit to a T-Mobile store, but there are no contract obligations, it comes with unlimited message capability, can hold up to 500 standard sized images, allows for the blocking of individual senders and does not take up one of your allowed accounts if you have a family plan. All in all pretty nice. Mom is going to like it and I think I may too since I may just get one for myself as well.

Want to read more about T-Mobile’s Cameo Digiframe? ZDNet did a nice review of it yesterday. Check it out for more details.

–Tom Milnes

"EA Sports Active" May Be a Mother's Day Gift That Keeps on Giving

Generally speaking it is fairly bad form to give an exercise oriented gift to a woman, even in a case like with your Mom where your relationship probably won't be hurt by a misunderstanding of the intent of the gift. But if there's a Mom on your list who you've been trying to introduce to gaming and who doesn't mind, or even better, likes breaking a sweat, then EA Sports Active may be a good option.

First off, the main caveat and possibly a deal breaker with regards to Mother's Day and Sports Active is that the title doesn't actually release until May 19th, meaning that it misses the Mother's Day buying rush. I've no idea what Electronic Arts (EA) was thinking on this, since Sports Active is a prime gift option for active mothers who own or have access to a Wii. But if you can hold off on the gifting for a week or so, it might be worth it. You might ask, why hold off? There are other exercise/fitness titles available for the Wii, for example Wii Fit, Gold's Gym Cardio Workout, Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2009 and a few others. This is very true, but reports today of comments by Peter Moore in which he was intent on making it known that EA, the publishers of the exercise title, consider Sports Active a "platform" would indicate that Sports Active might include additional future downloadable content, in addition to a heart rate and other biometric data. The 800-lb gorilla of the fitness/exercise genre, Wii Fit, includes some light biometrics, but not a heart rate meter. Also Wii Fit is not really an exercise title, where as Sports Active aims a little more towards this; not totally, but definitely more so.

The main point take away from this "platform" comment is that if there is additional content this means that the life of Sports Active would certainly be extended, which tends to keep users engaged longer. Add to this the fact that novice users, i.e. your Mom, would be getting exposure to more advanced uses of the Wii by updating their software via downloads, and you have both a health building and gamer building endeavor. This sounds like both a good move for EA and your Mom, if she is so inclined. Make it so EA and they will come.

To learn more about EA Sports Active, click here.

–Hobson's Choice

Tested All Over the World: The Star Wars Punch Out and Play Book

    



Every once in awhile something really fun pops up in the post office box–or, in this case, punches out in the post office box. Michael and Karan Feder’s Star Wars: Punch Out and Play! is one such book, and as such we thought it deserved a little nontrad coverage. You can punch out (or, er, carefully separate out) 12 iconic Star Wars characters and, as the ad copy says, create a dozen free-standing paper dolls to “decorate your home, office, or any place in need of some intergalactic inspiration and transport yourself to a galaxy far, far away.”



Well, here at Omnivoracious, we’ve decided to stress-test this concept–not all over the galaxy, but at least all over the world…er, or at least three continents and four countries. We’ve sent copies of Star Wars: Punch Out and Play! to five bloggers renowned for their imagination and experience staging cardboard scenes. (They’re also all excellent readers, whose book recommendations really mean something.) Starting in mid-May, I’ll report back with photos of their efforts and we’ll find out just how fun this book is to play around with…er, punch out.



Who are the Punch Out Five?






Australia: Writer Tessa Kum was last seen on Omnivoracious contributing suggestions for Aussie fiction reading. Her popular blog Silence Without has been cited on Australian national radio as a prime source for Steampunk (although she’s since discontinued this practice) and often features battles between iconic science fiction creatures. She’s currently shopping around her delightful pop culture-influenced 7wishes story suite (which should make some publisher very happy).



Canada: Corey Redekop is the author of the wonderful novel Shelf Monkey, a must for all bibliophiles. His Shelf Monkey blog features a selection of pop culture entries and several book reviews. Bilingual in silliness and seriousness both, Corey should be up to the task of setting up cardboard figures in interesting poses. He’s currently working on his second novel.



Finland: The widely respected but never emulated Jukka Halme has been part of Finnish genre fandom for quite some time, in addition to editing a New Weird anthology in that country. On his blog, he eats muffins in an agitated manner. He and his colleague Tero Ykspetäjä, who runs the fandom newsblog Partial Recall, will both be receiving the Star Wars book, using the rationale that there is no greater force for potential Star Wars enthusiasm in Europe than Finland, with its iconic Finncon, Animecon, and other events that demonstrate adevotion to SF pop culture. (I believe their punch-out will involve an epic battle between Finnish and Swedish Star Wars fans, but don’t hold me to that…)



United States: Representing the U.S.–no pressure–is Cherie Priest, who promises that cats will be involved with her Star Wars display. Cherie is a rising star of a novelist, with Fathom–equal parts horror, contemporary fantasy and apocalyptic thriller–just released this past December. Her blog is always lively, and frequently hilarious.