LG G2 Coming to T-Mobile, Verizon This Month

LG's newest flagship device finally has a U.S. release date - two, actually. Verizon will be the first to offer the LG G2 when it goes on sale Sept. 12 for $200 with a two-year contract. Meanwhile, T-Mobile is taking preorders for the smartphone today, with expected availability on Sept. 18. The cost is $100 down and 24 equal payments of $21. Introduced in August, the G2 is LG's latest effort to make a dent in the U.S. market; it features a 5.2-inch HD touchscreen and 13-megapixel camera. AT&T and Sprint are also expected to offer the device.

Review: Soundprism Electro Mini—Make Your Own Tunes with Ease!

Audanika has developed several trippy music applications that turn your iPad or iPhone into a synth and MIDI powerhouse. The coolest part is that even without musical training or ability, you are still likely to be able to bang out a better than passable melody just by selecting a few random tiles in the app, and it's engrossing and fun to try! Read on to learn how the new SoundPrism Electro Mini ($2.99) brings more synth magic to your iPhone!

We have reviewed SoundPrism before, and now Audanika has recently released Electro Mini for iPhone with a few noteworthy new features! The idea is very much like the original SoundPrism. It works better than can be explained in the screenshots (see video below). I am primarily a guitar player, though I have poked around on the keys for years. I have enough technique to mostly just embarrass myself, and the hardest part is coordinating left and right hand on all those keys. ALL THOSE DARN KEYS!

SoundPrism alleviates the pesky detail of hitting a certain selection of keys with two hands by automagically clustering the note selections into a serenely tuned chord around the tile you select. A spot on the rolling multidimensional keys will instantly map the correct accompanying notes. You can use the bass keys for emphasis and set a cadence and it's really easy to get the knack. With the advent of the Electro version for iPad, a sliding controller allows you to manually control the low-pass filter effects provided in the app. Other improvements in the interface make it a bit more flexible than the originals and you can also integrate with Mac or PC audio tools as it supports Core MIDI as in other versions.

Electro Mini is insanely cool, but one complaint I have is that if you want to record or mix in tracks, you need other apps for that, such as the $4.99 Audiobus app. It would be nice to have a few backing beats and a simple record feature built in already. The help feature is well done, but I think it could use a few examples of each feature in action for music newbs.

Pros

• Superior synth sounds
• Intuitive interface for easy music creation

Cons

Not many, but could use a simple record feature and better examples of some features

Final Verdict

SoundPrism has been endorsed by Jordan Rudess, legendary virtuoso keyboardist for Dream Theater. It remains one of our favorite music apps as well, and the new Electro Mini version is worth having on your iPhone!

iPhone Life Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

 

Want to master your iPhone and iPad? Sign up here to get our tip of the day delivered right to your inbox.Topics:

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5 in 1 two way radio Programming Cable software kit (RS232 Serial cable with 5 connectors + CD-ROM) for MOTOROLA Walkie-Talkie Radio (Two-Way Radio) GP300 /P88/P110/GM300/GM3188/GP2000 CP040/CT150/CP200/ PRO3150/HT750/GP308/PRO5350/PRO5150/GP328/GP338/ EX600/GP328PLSU /GP344 etc. Reviews

5 in 1 two way radio Programming Cable software kit (RS232 Serial cable with 5 connectors + CD-ROM) for MOTOROLA Walkie-Talkie Radio (Two-Way Radio) GP300 /P88/P110/GM300/GM3188/GP2000 CP040/CT150/CP200/ PRO3150/HT750/GP308/PRO5350/PRO5150/GP328/GP338/ EX600/GP328PLSU /GP344 etc.

• 1.This cable connects Two-Way Radio to RS-232 Serial of PC for programming your Two-Way Radio by computer programming software (CPS)
• 2.Work without RIB (Radio interface box)
• 3.Connector : DB9 female, 2.5 mm plug, RJ45, multi-pin
• 4.CD-ROM (CD drive) included.if CD missing or broken,pls contact the seller,I will sent the software by email.
• 5.Compatible with MOTOROLA Two-Way Radio requiring 1-pin (2.5mm) plug, multi-pin or RJ45. (See more details below)

Compatible with Motorola walkie talkie:
Battery connector for models:GP88, GP88s, GP300, GP350 (crocodile clip jumper wire needed for GP350, but not included in this article), P110 2.5mm plug for models: CP040, CP100, CP140, CP150, CP160, CP180, CP200 CT150, CT250, CT450, CT450-LS GP3688, GP68, GP88S, GP2000, GP2100 P020, P030, P040, P080, PR400, PRO2150, PRO3150, PRO7550 RJ45 for models: Desktrac Mobiles and Repeters, GTX Mobiles, LTS Mobiles, MARATRAC Mobiles, MAXTRAC Mobiles, RADIUS Mobiles,

Valve's Final Reveal: A Steam Controller With Dual Trackpads, Touchscreen

Today, Valve revealed the final piece for its plans to bring PC gaming to the living room: A game controller.

The Steam Controller is shaped like a traditional controller but features two circular, clickable trackpads instead of analog sticks. Valve said that the trackpads allow for "far higher fidelity input" and come close to the experience and precision offered by a desktop mouse. In addition, the trackpads are equipped with small electromagnets that provide haptic feedback.

Between the two trackpads is a touchscreen that can also serve as a single, clickable button. Using Valve's API, developers can build their games to use the touchscreen as a scrolling menu, a radial dial or a secondary screen. Valve also said that actions prompted by the controller's touchscreen will be overlaid onto the game, so players don't have to look back and forth between their TV and the controller.

The Steam Controller has 16 buttons total, and the location of each control is based on frequency of use, precision required and ergonomics.

Built from the ground up, the Steam Controller has been in the works at Valve for about a year. The idea behind it was to make games that were playable only with a keyboard and mouse accessible from the sofa. The Steam Controller will work with any game available on Steam.

Users can sign up to be a beta hardware tester, though Valve warns that the beta units will not have touchscreens or be wireless. The API will be made available to developers when the company ships its first prototype controllers later this year.

The Steam Controller marks the last of three announcements made by Valve this week. Earlier, the company announced its Linux-based SteamOS and Steam Machines game consoles.

All are aimed to expand PC gaming to the living room, and though Steam Machines may not be "console killers," they could disrupt the PC market.

Next week, Valve promises to reveal more details about its SteamOS prototype.

The iPad Video Coach Part 4 Reviews

The iPad Video Coach Part 4

Serenity Now: Apps to Help Manage Your Stress and Mood

When people ask me how I'm doing, my standard answer is "I'm fine," or "Doing well, thanks." But sometimes I'm lying straight to their face.

As anyone knows, life isn't all sunshine and rainbows. I stress about work. I fret about money. I worry about my family. The list goes on. And though I try to relieve some of the frustration by going for a run or heading to the beach, I'm not so good about actually dealing with my feelings. Instead, I just internalize everything until it culminates to a breaking point, like this weekend, when a broken picture frame led to an epic meltdown. It wasn't a pretty scene, people.

[ See post to watch video ]

Knowing that this isn't a healthy way to deal with things, I tried out two smartphone apps, Senti and Stress Tracker, which are designed to help keep tabs on your mood.

Unlike the stress-monitoring tools Tink and HeartMath Inner Balance Sensor, which my colleague Katie Boehret reviewed a few weeks ago, the two mobile apps are free, and don't require an extra piece of hardware for your smartphone. They also don't measure your heart rate to calculate stress levels. Rather, the apps require you to tell them how you're feeling.

By taking a more active approach, both companies hope that their apps will help people better understand what causes them stress, so they can do something about it. In the week that I've been using the apps, I can't say either one significantly reduced any stress in my life. But the simple exercise of logging how I was feeling was pretty insightful, and I even learned a couple of relaxation exercises. Of the two, Stress Tracker was more helpful.

Stress Tracker is available for iOS devices, and there's also a Web app. It allows you to rate your stress on a sliding scale of one to 10, with one being relaxed and 10 being super-stressed. After you've selected your stress level, you can add it to your daily diary with a single tap of a button, and then add more details about what's affecting your mood.

For example, the app provides fields for selecting sources of stress, stress symptoms and lifestyle habits. You can also select from a group of emoticons to express your current mood and add personal notes, so you have a record of how you were feeling that day and what contributed to your mood. There is no limit to the number of entries you can make in a day.

Since your day can get hectic, I recommend setting up reminders to add your details to Stress Tracker, which you can do through the app's Settings menu. I set them for 9 am, noon, 6 pm and 9 pm. Strangely, the alerts always came a few minutes after the actual times.

Still, this exercise was useful in a couple of ways. For one, it actually made me stop and think about how I was feeling and how it was affecting my mental and physical being. And, by doing so, it also gave me an opportunity to do something about it.

Using the History and Insights section of the app, I could see that my top sources of stress were work- and money-related, which manifested in muscular, cognitive and emotional symptoms.

Stress Tracker provides a pretty good Advice section, where you can read up on some tips for relieving stress. It offers basic tips like going for a short walk or taking deep breaths, and also breaks it down by source, symptoms and action plan. There's also the option to buy relaxation exercises and rage-control programs from within the app.

Since I tend to hold a lot of my stress in my shoulders and neck, I bought the Progressive Muscle Relaxation program for 99 cents. To be honest, the woman's voice creeped me out, but once I got past that, the exercises, which included making and releasing a fist, were actually helpful. One thing I noticed, though, is that if you have your iPhone set to auto-lock after a certain number of minutes, the exercises will suspend once the screen turns off, so I had to set my phone to not automatically turn off the screen while doing these exercises.

Senti is currently only available for iOS, but an Android version is in the works. The app takes a different approach than Stress Tracker. Rather than measuring stress, the app asks you various questions throughout the day to help gauge your mood, such as "How does today compare to most?"

From the Settings menu, you can specify how many questions the app sends you (the maximum is 10 per day), and when you'll receive these questions. But the timing of the questions is mostly random. Sometimes I'd get two questions within half an hour of each other, and sometimes a few hours would go by before I got the next query. One thing I recommend is allowing push notifications when you first install the app, because otherwise the onus is on you to remember to engage with the app.

Like Stress Tracker, Senti was helpful in that it made me stop and think about myself for once. In some ways, Senti was even more thought-provoking than Stress Tracker. For example, I got a question that asked, "To get to where I am today, I had to give up ___." It's something that I've never really considered, and it forced me to think about an answer (though you can skip a question, too). In this way, I felt like Senti was more a digital diary than a stress reliever, which is useful in its own right.

The app allows you to see your full history of moods in bar graph form, so you can keep track of how you're doing and compare it to other days. That said, I wish there were a way to view how you answered questions for each day, so you could see if you might answer differently on another day. The company told me it is working on adding this feature in the future, as well as giving users more control over question topics and timing.

It's easy to get caught up in the chaos of a day, but it's also okay to take some time for yourself. Whether you need to express how you're feeling at the moment or need a stress break, Senti and Stress Tracker are easy and free ways to do this.

Kindle Fire HDX: A More Helpful Tablet

What if you could summon a tech-support person to pop up in seconds in a live video on your digital device? And what if that person could draw on the screen or even take over the device to solve a problem?

Well, starting Oct. 18, you can do just that with the latest in Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet line, the Kindle Fire HDX. This help system, called the Mayday button, is the most unusual feature of what is otherwise a mainly evolutionary new model of the company's color tablets.

A better help system isn't exactly the prime reason to buy a new tablet. After all, tablets are supposed to be simple and easy to figure out. But Mayday is consistent with Amazon's long, well-earned reputation for customer support.

X-Ray for Music shows lyrics synchronized to the song playing on the Kindle Fire HDX.

I've been testing the Fire HDX, and it's a good, basic color tablet. This latest model, which starts at $229 for the 7-inch-screen version I used, is a definite improvement on last year's Fire HD, which started at $199 for the 7-inch version. (There's also a costlier, larger HDX version, with an 8.9-inch screen.)

Like earlier Fire models, it's best thought of as a hardware gateway to buying digital content from Amazon. The base model blasts ads at you from the home screen, but you can buy one without ads for $15 more.

However, the 7-inch Fire HDX, like its predecessor, still isn't as versatile or full-featured as rival tablets, like Apple's iPad mini or Google's Nexus 7. It offers only a fraction of the third-party apps available from the Apple or Google app stores. Among the missing are such popular offerings as Instagram, Dropbox, Google Maps, YouTube and Netflix (Amazon says a Netflix app is coming soon).

Unlike the mini or the Nexus, the 7-inch Fire HDX lacks a rear camera, so you can't easily show your surroundings to others during a video chat (the bigger model has a rear camera).

And the HDX has no equivalent to its rivals' voice-controlled, artificial intelligence features, Apple's Siri and Google Now.

And the Fire HDX turned in a so-so battery life of 7 hours that, while better than the 6 hours of the latest Nexus 7, paled before the iPad mini's 10 hours and 27 minutes. (I used my standard test where I set the screen to 75 percent brightness, keep the Wi-Fi on and play videos stored on the tablet until the battery dies.)

So, what makes the new Kindle HDX better than the last model? Well, it has a gorgeous, high-resolution screen that displays 323 pixels per inch, the same as the latest $229 Nexus 7, but much higher than the $329 iPad mini's 163 ppi (though the mini's screen is significantly larger, at 7.9 inches). The screen also was a bit more readable in sunlight than the iPad's. The Fire HDX has a faster processor that has eliminated the latency I encountered when testing last year's model.

The Fire HDX has a new operating system and some cool new features. The home screen still has a carousel to show recently used apps, songs, books and videos, but below that there's now a standard grid of icons for favorite apps and you can hide the carousel if you find it distracting. There's also a new sidebar for quickly switching among running apps. This appears when you swipe from the edge of the screen.

Perhaps my favorite new feature is called X-Ray for Music, which shows synchronized lyrics to the song you're playing. So far, it's only available on "tens of thousands" of Amazon's 25 million songs, starting with the newest and most popular. But I found scattered cases in songs going back to the 1970s and enjoyed using it.

The Fire HDX is slimmer and lighter than last year's model, and has tapered edges. But there's a downside to this design. Because the tapered edges are narrow, the volume and power buttons have been moved to the back of the tablet. I found them clumsy and slow to use.

Like its predecessors, the Fire HDX is technically an Android tablet that buries Android so it's invisible. The HDX lacks any hint of Google's Android interface, the standard Google apps that come on most Android devices and the standard Android app store, Google Play. Instead it uses an Amazon operating system now called Fire OS 3.0.

Amazon has its own app store for the Fire HDX and it contains 85,000 apps, compared with roughly a million each in the Google and Apple app stores.

The Mayday help button worked mostly as advertised, though I got little useful help, partly because Amazon is training a large number of support people and few have much experience yet with the new HDX.

When you click the Mayday button, which appears in a settings bar that swipes down from the top of the screen, a small, movable video window pops up. You can see the support person, but he or she can only hear you. To better explain things, the person can draw on your screen. And if you allow it, he or she can take over the Fire to perform tasks.

The support people appeared in 10 seconds or less and were unfailingly friendly. But they often just went poking around the device, looking for a menu item or icon that would accomplish what I couldn't figure out. In two cases, they put me on pause, to do some quick research. Amazon says their knowledge will grow as they get more familiar with the new hardware and software.

In one case, a Mayday agent I had previously talked with followed up on an earlier question concerning how to get an app that wasn't in the Amazon app store for the HDX. She sent me an email explaining how to do a 10-step workaround.

Mayday isn't entirely private. You have to give agents your name, email and address, the call is recorded and customer-service management can see reports on individual calls. But overall, it's a great idea.

If you mainly want a tablet for consuming content and regularly use Amazon content, the new Kindle Fire HDX is a good deal.

Email Walt at mossberg@wsj.com.

Tablet-Optimized Twitter Android App Now Available, Limited at First to Samsung Devices

Today, Twitter launched a new version of its mobile app optimized specifically for Android tablets. Twitter for Android Tablets now takes full advantage of a tablet's larger screen to display tweets, conversations and more in full landscape view. The app will only be available for Samsung devices at first, specifically the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition. Support for other Samsung tablets will come soon, and the app will be available to other Android tablets by the end of the year.

MINITURTLE, 2 in 1 Mesh Hybrid Hard Phone Case Cover, Jaw Phone Stand, and Clear Screen Protector Film for Htc Mytouch 4g 2010 /T-mobile (Light Blue / Green) Reviews

MINITURTLE, 2 in 1 Mesh Hybrid Hard Phone Case Cover, Jaw Phone Stand, and Clear Screen Protector Film for Htc Mytouch 4g 2010 /T-mobile (Light Blue / Green)

• 2 piece form fitted hybrid case
• Precise openings on the case to allow access of controls
• Reinforces vulnerable corners and adds additional grip for better handles
• Jaw phone stand can be used to hold your phone up for hands-free media viewing
• Designed to fit the T Mobile HTC myTouch 4G 2010

Mesh Hybrid Case

You are looking at the Mesh Hybrid case designed to specifically fit the T Mobile HTC myTouch 4G.

What you get:
Carry your phone with you knowing that it is well protected with this product. This case is designed to offer you maximum quality protection for your expensive device by deflecting and/or absorbing most scratch, bumps, and fall damages. Precision and detail to cutouts will allow you full use of your phone's functionality without an

Urban Shelf – Green Reviews

Urban Shelf - Green

• Space saving bedside storage system for your essential items. Can also be wall mounted as a fold away shelf.
• Doubles as an iPad, Kindle, NOOK, tablet stand for tables, counters, laps & airplane trays (Not intended to hold iPad in bedside table mode)
• Portable & lightweight: Folds flat to only 1/2 thick. No assembly required
• Convenient cord holders: Ideal for iPhone / Android / Blackberry / tablets / e-readers
• Contemporary design blends with any d cor while sturdy high grade ABS plastic construction ensures long life - Available in Black, White, Pink, Green, Orange or Blue - Made in USA

URBAN SHELF, a handy storage device designed to hold your essentials on a stable yet easily foldable platform - all smartly held in place w/ a mattress, sofa or futon. Creates the perfect spot for keeping phones, remotes, keys, small H20 bottle, eyeglasses, books & more while in bed. Integrated cord holders ensure gadgets are charged when you wake - eliminates the need to reach on the ground for charger tips. An edge lip keeps items like pocket change/lip balm/mints from falling. The ability to

In Search of a Virtual Keyboard App

Q:

I'm a former BlackBerry user who has been struggling with the virtual keyboard on his Droid for years. I considered the new BlackBerry, whose virtual keyboard you praised, but want a phone supported by more app developers. I would appreciate your advice on which keyboard app is easiest to operate now.

A:

The keyboard app I personally find best on Android is called SwiftKey, which replaces the stock keyboard on Android wherever it appears. It does a particularly good job of learning your writing habits and predicting what word is likeliest to come next. It can even sync these personal predictions across your Android devices.

Q:

With iGoogle going away in a few weeks, what is your recommendation on a good replacement site?

A:

There are a number of sites which, like iGoogle, aim to be your browser's home page, consolidating personalized selections of news, weather, sports, stocks, calendar, search and more. My personal choice would be My Yahoo, which even has instructions for importing your settings from iGoogle. To find others, do a search for "iGoogle replacements."

Q:

I don't like the redesigned calendar app in Apple's iOS 7 for my iPad. Is there a way to restore the old calendar?

A:

Not that I know of, but there are many alternative calendar apps for iPads and iPhones, which can be found in the app store by searching for "calendar."

Email Walt at mossberg@wsj.com.

The Fujifilm X100S Is The Perfect Constant Camera Companion For Photography Fans

If you want a rangefinder-style camera with classic styling and relative affordability, Fujifilm's X100, and its successor, the X100S are some of the very few options out there. But the X100 had quirks around autofocus that made a niche camera even more specialized. The X100S zaps some of those issues, resulting in a camera that, while still quirky, is much more lovably so, for amateurs and enthusiasts alike.

• 16.3 megapixels, APS-C sensor
• Fixed, F2 maximum aperture 23mm (35mm equivalent) lens
• ISO 200 -6400 (100 to 25600 extended)
• 6.0 FPS burst mode shooting
• 1080p video recording
• Hybrid electronic view finder
• MSRP: $1,299.95
• Product info page

The X100S retains almost exactly the same classic styling as its predecessor, which features a leatherette body with metal accents, and it looks excellent. This is a camera that you're actually proud to wear around your neck, even if it does make you look slightly like a tourist, and one that resembles the Leicas that cost oodles more money.

The X100S might be a little bulky for a camera with a fixed lens that isn't a DSLR, but it's actually a good size. It won't quite fit in a pocket as a result, but it gives photographers plenty to hold onto, and offers up lots of space for its ample buttons and physical controls without resulting in a cramped feeling. Plus the thing oozes quality; it's a $1,300 camera, but it feels even more solid and well-designed than its tidy price tag would let on, and it's durable to boot - I've carted it literally around the world with minimal protection and it's as good as new.

Functionally, the control layout is the real star of the X100S. A physical dial for exposure compensation and for shutter speed, as well as an aperture ring on the lens and quick access to ISO settings programmable via the Fn button on the top of the camera make this a manual photographer's dream - and possible an automatic photographer's overburdened mess. But that's part of the quirk, and the real appeal of this unique camera.

The X100S offers a lot in the way of features, including the excellent hybrid viewfinder that can switch instantly between optical and electronic modes thanks to a lever on the front of the camera within easy reach from shooting position. It's the best of old and new, giving you a chance to frame with true fidelity optical quality and also with a preview akin to the one you'd see on the back of the camera via the LCD screen. You can preview exposure that way, and white balance as well as depth of field. The EVF also offers 100 percent coverage of the image, meaning what you see is what you get in the resulting photo.

Manual focusing also gets a big improvement with the X100S, which is great because focus-by-wire is traditionally a big weakness on non DSLR advanced cameras. It uses a new Digital Split Image method that works with phase detection to adjust focus with a high degree of accuracy, and it works remarkably well. To my eye, which is generally very bad at achieving consistently reliable level of focus accuracy on full manual lenses with my DSLR, the split image trick (along with the inclusion of existing focus peaking tech) works amazingly well.

The X100S is a much better camera in all respects than its predecessor, the X100, and that was a very good camera. Its "Intelligent Hybrid Auto Focus" that switches between phase and contract AF automatically to lock as quickly as possible works very well, though it does struggle somewhat in darker settings and at closer ranges still. It's heaps and bounds better than the original, however, and makes this camera a great one for street shooting; a task which, to my mind, it seems almost perfectly designed for.

Combining a camera that looks suitably touristy, with a short, compact lens and a 35mm equivalent focal lens, with great low-light shooting capabilities and fast autofocus makes for a great street camera, so if that's what you're after I can't recommend this enough. It performed less well as an indoor candid shooter, owing to some leftover weakness at achieving focus lock close up, but it's still good at that job too. In general, the X100S is a great camera for shooting human subjects, in my opinion, thanks to its signature visual style that seems to compliment skin especially well.

The X100S is a photographer's everyday camera. It might frustrate newcomers, unless they're patient and willing to learn, but it's a joy to use if you have any kind of familiarity with manual settings, and the fixed focal length is a creative constraint that produces some amazing results. This isn't the camera for everybody, but it's a more broadly appealing shooter than the X100 ever was, and it's also even a steal at $1,300 - if, that is, you have that kind of disposable income to spend on photography tools. Know that if you do spend the cash, this is definitely a camera that will stay in your bag and/or around your neck for a long time to come, and a worthy upgrade for X100 fans, too.

Where's the Intel Sticker?

Q:

Thanks for explaining how to use the new-style Intel Inside sticker to find a laptop with the latest Intel chip. But what if I'm shopping online, where they usually don't show the sticker?

A:

Besides the sticker, there are two ways to tell if the PC or Mac you are considering has the latest Intel Core processor, which boosts battery life. One is to look for the words "Fourth Generation" or "4th gen" or even "Haswell" (the chip's code name) in the description of the processor. The other is to check what Intel calls the processor number, which follows the chip's name, to make sure it starts with the number 4. One example might be Intel Core i5 - 4300M.

Q:

Apple's iTunes Genius feature is getting on my nerves, because, when I sync my device, it takes up time syncing "Genius data." What does Genius do and how can I turn it off?

A:

Genius is a free, optional feature that can create mixes or playlists based on songs in your music library. The data that is synced is used to update the playlist-creation algorithms about changes to your library. If you don't use Genius or like it, you can turn it off by going to iTunes on your computer, selecting the Store menu, and clicking on "Turn Off Genius." Note: These menu items won't be available if you use iTunes Match, a separate, paid service that stores your music in the cloud.

Q:

I need a new laptop and I want Windows, but I don't want to get one with Windows 8, or Windows 8.1. Is it still possible to buy a laptop with Windows 7?

A:

Yes. They are getting scarcer, but you can find them at both stores and online. I saw a few in a Micro Center chain store about 10 days ago. Checking on the chain's website, I see more, from $350 to over $1,000. But many listings indicate a limited number remain in stock.

Write to Walt at mossberg@wsj.com.

Garmin’s Vivofit Has Some Neat Features, But How Does It Compare To Other Wearables?

Wearable-Tech Fatigue and the New Fitbit Force

I had almost given up on all activity-tracking wristbands until I tried the new Fitbit Force.

You see, over the past year and a half I've tried a bunch of these wearable tech products, like the Jawbone Up, the Nike+ Fuelband, multiple Fitbits and others. A few months ago I even wore four at the same time, and compared how they interpreted my daily steps, sleep patterns, heart rate, food intake and more.

But then I fell off the wristband wagon. When life got super busy, the activity-tracking wristband was the first thing I ditched.

There are a few reasons for this. The first is that I moved out of New York City, where walking is almost by default a competition. I had no problem meeting my step goals there. Now I'm in a community where driving and biking are the most-used forms of transportation. (In fact, I'm probably a better test case now than I was before, for these get-up-and-move devices.)

Recharging the bands became a hassle. And they all come with proprietary chargers that are easy to misplace or lose.

Another reason is that some of these bands felt too high-maintenance after a while. While they auto-record some data, other data has to be manually logged into a compatible mobile app.

Finally, and perhaps most significantly, considering how much attention some of them require, I felt like I wasn't getting enough back. Beyond my own self-motivation, few provided me with the habit-changing analysis or positive reinforcement that is promised with these bands. These were supposed to be "smart" bands, and yet they weren't really super-smart.

Despite all this, I decided to test yet another band this week, the new Fitbit Force, to see if it offers enough features to lure me back. This particular activity-tracking wristband costs $130, and hits the market in a couple weeks. It syncs your activity data to the Fitbit website and iOS and Android mobile apps.

Unlike Fitbit's previous Flex wristband, the Force has a display, tracks stair climbing and elevation (if you are, for example, running up a hill), and in the future it will wirelessly pair with iOS 7 devices to show notifications from your mobile phone. In short, this is what the Fitbit Flex should have been.

After a week of using the Force, I can say it's a pretty cool activity-tracking band. It's simple, low-commitment and tracks a fair amount of data.

That said, it seems as though the whole product category has moved on to Activity Tracking 1.1, but hasn't quite graduated to Wearables 2.0. There is competition coming in from multiple directions now. Nike just announced a new FuelBand. There are - and will be more - smartwatches that show notifications from mobile devices and also track activities. There are also purpose-driven apps that run on that device you already have in your pocket, and those smartphone sensors are getting smarter.

There still isn't one product or solution that does it all really well.

I did not get to test how mobile notifications appear on the Force, because that software update isn't available yet from Fitbit. I think that will be a key part of its overall usefulness, if it works.

Setting up the Force is simple. You can plug the wristband into your laptop via USB, or pair it up with your smartphone using low-energy Bluetooth. The Fitbit apps and website are free to use, but for $50 a year you get more advanced analytics around your activities.

The Force is thicker and slightly heavier than the Flex wristband, to accommodate the display and the larger battery that powers it. But it didn't feel bulky or geeky to me. It comes in two colors, black and slate, and the OLED display is a slick strip, like a piece of black tape, across the top of the rubbery wristband.

The Force's clasp is the only thing that peeves me. I don't know why, but every morning I wrestle with two plastic prongs you squeeze through railroad-track-style gaps on the underside of the wristband.

On the left side of the band is a tiny button that you press to toggle through the information on the display. This includes the time of day, how many steps you've taken, how many miles you've traveled, how many calories you've burned and how many stairs you've climbed. The stair-climbing count seemed a little off at times, but having that number on my wrist still made me think to take the stairs more often (especially when there's an elevator right next to the staircase, as is the case at my apartment complex).

As with the initial set-up, syncing the data is super easy. On my iPhone 5, I turned on Bluetooth and left it on all week. Each morning, I would open up the Fitbit app and my data from the day before would wirelessly sync to the app. While I think Jawbone's Up app is fun, I really appreciate the clean interface of the Fitbit app. (And, like the Up app, Fitbit pulls in data from other apps, as well - like MyFitnessPal, Lose It! and MapMyRun.)

Fitbit tracks your food intake, but you have to manually enter that in, which I opted not to do this week. The Fitbit Force also tracks your sleep duration, but you have to set it to sleep mode at night by holding down the button and waiting for it to buzz.

With the older Fitbit wristband, users can remove a nut-sized dongle from the wristband and swap out bands. Not with the new Force: This wristband is all one piece. Mine is still in great shape after a week of use, though I've heard longtime users of the earlier Flex band complain that the rubber bands degrade over time, making the Flex's swap-out option appealing.

Fitbit said the Force's battery should last seven to 10 days, even with notifications running. In my experience, without receiving mobile notifications, the wristband has lasted more than seven days.

So, the Force still requires you to manually log your food, and it's not smart enough to just know when you're sleeping. It doesn't have a heart-rate sensor, skin sensors (for measuring heat flux or exertion levels). It doesn't pick up on activities like bike-riding, which I've been doing more of, and it's not waterproof enough for swimming. Side note: I also miss my watch, which is a nice, stylish watch.

As I said, this is the next step in activity-trackers, and it's baby steps. Still, I like the Fitbit Force. It might just get me back into activity-tracking gear.

A Week With The Shine, A Beautifully Designed Smart Activity Tracker Made From Japanese Metal

Fitbits. FuelBands. UPs. The market for smart, connected activity trackers continues to get ever-more crowded. And yet, there's not an obvious winner yet.

Misfit Wearables' Shine is a new entrant in the space and they may have the most beautifully-designed piece of hardware yet. The company behind the Shine is itself a homage to Apple founder Steve Jobs' famous "Think Different" campaign and the famous 1997 commercial that began with the line, "Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits."

Backed by Founders Fund and Khosla Ventures, the company was co-founded by Sonny Vu, who built up a glucose-monitoring business called Agamatrix that had the first official medical device add-on to the iPhone, and former Apple CEO John Sculley. For a small startup, they have an impressively multi-national team with industrial designers in San Francisco, data scientists in Vietnam and manufacturing in South Korea and Japan.

The Shine is a tiny circle not much larger than a quarter that's made from Japanese metal or aircraft-grade aluminum. It has LED lights beneath the surface that glow through minuscule holes on the metal itself. Those lights form a ring, indicating how far a person is toward completing their activity goals for the day. You tap the Shine twice to see how much progress you've made. If half the lights shine, you're halfway done. If they complete a circle, then you've hit your goal.

I had a chance to test it out for a week or so, tracking everything from regular walks to dancing and downhill mountain biking.

Overall, I love the product. It looks like a piece of jewelry in many ways, and while I'm not an industrial designer myself, several other friends who work in hardware were impressed by the make and form of the Shine.

It is not plastic like a Fitbit. Then because it doesn't have to be worn as a bracelet like the FuelBand or Jawbone UP, it looks a lot more elegant, especially if you're a woman and want something more discreet. The Shine is comparable in price to its competitors at $99.95. The Fitbit is about $99.95, the Jawbone UP is $129.99 and the Nike FuelBand is about $150.

The Shine has four different accessories: a wristband, a necklace, a watch and a magnetic clip that makes it easy to attach anywhere, from your shoe to your sleeve to your shirt. My preferred accessory was the magnetic clip, but I didn't have a chance to try out the necklace or watch.

Throughout the day, the Shine tracks how much you walk or run. It also handles sleep, swimming and cycling, but you have to program it. To do that, you tap the Shine three times, and it will recognize whichever activity you set up in the paired app. Unfortunately, like the other activity trackers, it doesn't handle yoga (and as someone who practices pretty much every day, the Shine and other competing products are missing out on an hour of physical activity).

The tapping is a bit hard to learn. Sometimes I would tap with two fingers and sometimes with three. Sometimes the Shine would misinterpret a few taps as a signal to record a different type of activity instead of showing me my results so far. You can also use it to tell time with different lights glowing to represent the hour and minute hands of a watch.

"The data science to get the double tap is hard," Vu told me. "There is no on and off button for the Shine and everything is powered by sensors."

Indeed, the only way to turn the Shine off is for the battery to run out or for you to remove it.

That underscores the huge benefit of the Shine, which is that it doesn't need to be charged every few days or weeks. It has a simple coin cell battery that needs to be replaced once every four to six months. It's also waterproof to a depth of 50 meters. I dunked it in a river in the Sierra Nevadas this weekend and it came out fine, but you could theoretically scuba dive with it, too.

The data transfer to the iPhone is also beautiful. You can see how it works below. The Shine uses a simple Bluetooth connection, and the app directs you to place the Shine on a circle on the iPhone app's screen. Circles radiate outward before the iPhone picks up the activity data in the Shine.

The paired app tells you how many points you've achieved in a day. The Shine doesn't do "steps" because it would be hard to swim in steps. The middle-range goal of 1,000 points per day requires walking for 1.5 hours, running for 35 minutes or swimming for 25. You can move points higher as you please.

Overall, I was really happy with the product. It is just that much more beautiful looking than the standard Fitbit or FuelBand. For women who are turned off by the look of the bracelet trackers, it's probably the ideal choice.

The Misfit Shine is only compatible with the iPhone for now, which was surely disappointing for Android-using supporters of the Shine who backed it on Indiegogo.

The company had a successful campaign on the crowdfunding site late last fall where they racked up 8,000 supporters in 64 countries, hit their goal in nine hours and went on to raise $850,000. That was nearly nine times as much as they targeted. Like many other hardware startups, Misfit Wearables used crowdfunding more as a marketing strategy than as a capital source. Misfit had no problem raising from some of the Valley's better-known VC firms, and this product shows why.

A Week With The Sync Burn, A Battery-Powered Fitness Band

Fitness bands are a dime a dozen these days. Everyone has one, it seems, from audio manufacturers like Jawbone to upstarts like Fitbit and Basis. Now the EB Sports Group, a company that makes fitness devices under a number of brands including Everlast and Men's Health. I've historically been wary of "no name" bands like this one - bands that are created to cash in on a trend rather than from an effort to create a software/hardware ecosystem, but I'll give this unit a pass for a few reasons.

The most interesting aspect of the Burn is its 1-year battery life. As a regular Fitbit user, I would kill for a device with a fully readable screen that can last longer than two weeks, let alone 365 days. The device is basically a digital watch and is about the size of the Pebble smart watch. The button on the top right controls the readout - you can tag workouts, see your hourly energy expenditure, and see exercise history. The lower right button activates the sync features which, in turn, activates a low energy Bluetooth transmitter.

There is a central button on the bottom of the watch that doubles as a read-out control and heart rate monitor. You can scroll through calories burned, steps taken, and miles walked. If you press and hold the button, however, the watch measures your heart rate. This, in turn, helps estimate calories burned. It's a wonky system and you have to press fairly hard with your thumb to get a reading but - and this is important - it works 99% of the time and helps conserve the battery.

The Burn is a product of trade-offs. It is a unique product - a quick visit to Alibaba didn't turn up any similar, unbadged watches - and I'm pleased with the battery life and simplicity of use. To really get the most out of the device, however, you can sync it with an app called MapMyFitness, a free app (with a $29.99/hear training add-on that comes free with the watch for six months) that tracks your runs. By syncing with the app you can simply add your daily walks to the MapMyFitness database. You essentially get a screen like this:

Obviously this isn't much better than any similar pedometer product but the heartrate monitor built in puts it on par with more expensive devices, like the Basis, and the lower-priced, $99 Withings Pulse. At $130, however, I'm hard pressed to recommend this over, say, a Fitbit Flex or the Pulse. Because of the odd choice to support only MapMyFitness, a popular but not particularly well-integrated piece of software, and the weird method for actually measuring the heart rate, the watch could end up being more trouble than its worth.

I used this primarily as a pedometer, checking my heartrate rarely during the day. To sit there and press and hold a thumb on the sensor is unfortunately too distracting while, say, taking or a walk or going to the gym. I far preferred the Basis' always-on sensor or even the Fitbit's overall passivity.

In terms of styling the Burn looks like any other sports watch with a nice red and black color scheme. The screen is a bit dark and unreadable at acute angles but I always enjoyed being able to read my steps taken with a simple direct glance at the watch, something almost none of the other fitness devices offer.

What's the bottom line? If you're a fan of MapMyFitness, this could be a solid addition to your regimen. If you're a fan of a more developed ecosystem I'd recommend the Basis, Nike+, or Fitbit over this device. It's a clever, nicely built sport-watch/fitness band but it just doesn't have the depth of data and support afforded by other devices.

Apple 45W MagSafe2 5pin Power Adapter for MacBook Air A1436 – US Plug Reviews

Apple 45W MagSafe2 5pin Power Adapter for MacBook Air A1436 - US Plug

used good condition

Restaurateurs, Resolve to Be More Efficient This Year with SteadyServ

If any industry needs to be more efficient, it's the restaurant and bar business. Profit margins are tight, employee turnover is a problem, and customers can be fickle. That's why I love shows like Bar Rescue which feature new technological solutions for one of the oldest industries.

Case in point, managing beer keg inventory. Traditionally, bars are caught off guard when a key runs dry, but SteadyServ aims to bring some predictability to the market. The company says their SteadyServ keg sensor collects and sends information such as how much beer remains, the type and style of the beer in the keg, when it was delivered, when it was tapped, its age, and when the keg may run out. It sends this information to SteadyServ's cloud-based software, where it is paired with other information, such as how much safety stock remains, the next delivery date, previous order information, past consumption trends, event information, beer consumption trends nearby, and even local weather forecasts which may impact patronage trends.

And what high tech solution would be complete without an app? The SteadyServ service comes with a free companion app, called iKeg, naturally! The app is free, but without a login, you can't really use it; However there are videos on their site that show it in action. There are also interfaces for retailers and for distributors.

The SteadyServ sensor, their intelligent cloud, and the iKeg app are a practical application of artificial intelligence that could make the difference between a profitable bar and a losing proposition!

NEW Full Housing For NOKIA N95 8GB 8G black with NEW keypad Reviews

NEW Full Housing For NOKIA N95 8GB 8G black with NEW keypad

• 100% high quality Original housing.
• Compatibility Nokia N95 8GB
• Replace your damaged or defective original PHONE
• Color: Black
• RECOMMENDED Installation by experienced technicians.We are not responsible for any phone damage caused by improper installation AND we do not provide any installation instruction

Package Included:

o Front Cover with earpiece speaker and front camera lens
o Back Cover with side buttons (volume, camera, media)
o Camera and Flash Lens
o Battery Cover
o Top Cover with power on/off button
o Bottom Cover with flex
o Top power key
o English keypad