Girl Geek Chic

The mission of One Laptop per Child (OLPC) is to empower the children of developing countries to learn by providing one connected laptop to every school-age child. In order to accomplish this, they need people who believe in what they’re doing and want to help make education for the world’s children a priority, not a privilege.

OLPC’s mission is to provide a means for learning, self-expression, and exploration to the nearly two billion children of the developing world with little or no access to education. While children are by nature eager for knowledge, many countries have insufficient resources to devote to education. By giving children their very own connected XO laptop, they are getting a window to the outside world, access to vast amounts of information, a way to connect with each other, and a springboard into their future.

I think this is an absolutely fantastic idea and empowering children in this way can only reap excellent rewards in the future. For further information check out www.amazon.com/xo

This all seems a bit bonkaz but it’s actually quite practical. It’s a smart piece of in car bluetooth hands free kit that doubles as a rear view mirror.  The best thing is there is no wiring or tricky installation required.

You simply clip it over your existing mirror, charge it in the lighter socket (doesn’t require continuous plugging) and you have your very own hands free kit for up to 15 hours talk time.  The microphone and speaker are cleverly integrated into the mirror surround and the caller id is displayed on the mirror itself so you don’t even have to take your eyes off the road to see who is calling.

It also comes with a bluetooth headset which sits neatly in the unit so if you want to continue talking when  you get out the car you just detach it and away you go.

I think the best thing about this for me is its ease of installation so no wires no complicated set up and the time that saves by not having to get it installed in the car by someone else. And it’s pretty cheap. You can get it online for around £60 at www.udiggit.com

 Key Features

• Bluetooth version 2.0 compliant - will connect to any type or model of bluetooth enabled mobile phone
• DSP technology, full duplex - providing high quality noise and echo cancellation for clear communication
• Independent Bluetooth headset, easily detached - continue your call outside of the vehicle
• Caller ID display - straightforward visibility of identity (phone number) of inbound caller
• Supports Handsfree & Headset Bluetooth profiles - simple pairing of this device to your mobile phone
• Built in Lithium Polymer rechargeable battery -providing you with 15 hours talk time, 20 days standby time for the mirror unit, and 2.5 hours talk time, 2 days standby time for the earpiece if used independently
• Convex mirror - for an enhanced rear-view field of vision and safer driving 
• Please note this product may not clip over the rear-view mirror of every make and model of vehicle. A maximum existing mirror height of 80mm can be accommodated. A typical clearance of 15mm between the top of your existing rear-view mirror and the the vehicle roof or windscreen, depending on which is closer, is required. 
   

Following on from the succes of The Flip camcorder, Pure Digital have taken a big step into the world of HD and brought out the Flip Mino HD, shooting in 720p.

It’s dubbed the world’s smallest camcorder, weighing only 3.3 ounces and it is very cute looking. It comes in loads of funky designs and you can even customise it with your own images.

It comes with 4gb of internal memory for up to 60 minutes of high quality video. The built in FlipShare editing software has also been upgraded allowing you instant viewing, editing and one click emailing. And dont forget it has direct upload to You Tube and MySpace for sharing those emabarassing video moments with the world.

I think this is a great Christmas pressie idea, it’s available on line for around £200 at http://www.bitesizedeals.co.uk.

Product Specification:

• Internal Memory:  4GB (60 minutes)
• Screen Size:  1.5″ (transflective TFT)
• Screen Resolution:  528 x 132 pixels
• Video Resolution:  1280 x 720
• Frame Rate:  30 frames per second (constant frame rate, progressive scan)
• Video Bitrate:  8.8Mbps (average - auto adaptive algorithm)
• Video Format:  H.264 video compression, AAC audio compression, saves as MP4 file
• Lens Type:  Fixed Focus (1.5m to infinity)
• Aperture:  f/2.4 (fast lens for great results in low-light environments)
• Zoom:  Smooth multi-step 2x digital
• Interface:  8 Touch-Sensitive Capacitive Buttons (Power, Play, Delete, Record and 4 way navigation)
• Dimensions:  3.94″ x 1.97″ x 0.63″ (H x W x D)
• PC Connection:  Built-in flip-out USB arm (up to 2.0 USB speed)
• TV Out:  NTSC (cable included)
• Battery Life:  Rechargeable lithium ion battery, charges using built-in USB arm
• Tripod Mount:  Yes
• Operating Systems:  Windows XP, Windows Vista Mac OSX
• Min. Requirements:  (Windows) Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz processor, Windows XP SP2 with 512 MB of RAM or Windows Vista with 2 GB of RAM, display monitor and video card support for 1024×768/24-bit color, Windows Media Player 9.0, Microsoft DirectX 9.0, USB 2.0 port
  (Mac) 1.66 GHz Intel CoreDuo or faster processor, 1 GB of RAM, OS X Tiger 10.4 or Leopard 10.5, display monitor and video card support for 1024×768/24-bit color, QuickTime 7, USB 2.0 port
• Software:  Built-in FlipShare^TM software with upgraded features: 
  Browse, playback, organize and archive your videos
  Create movies with videos, music & titles
  Edit clips and save still photos from video
  Instantly upload to AOL, MySpace, YouTube and other video sites
  Share your videos using email or greetings cards (free and unlimited video sharing)

Your free personal travel assistant

For all of you who travel a fair bit  www.tripit.com  is a personal travel assistant that automatically organizes your travel plans into one master itinerary. It’s absolutely free and turns your travelling chaos into order.

It does the following:

• Organizes trip details into one master online itinerary , even if arrangements are booked at multiple travel sites, including flights, hotels, cars, trains and more
• Automatically includes maps, directions and weather in the master itinerary
• Gives the option to book restaurants, theatre tickets, activities and more right from within the online itinerary
• Safely access travel plans online, share them, check-in for flights, or print an itinerary

It’s so simple and easy to use, Just create an account and then forward your travel confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com and tripit will do the rest.  

Happy travels!

I love books, I love going to bookshops and just looking around so the thought of making my own book that actually looks like a proper, real, grown up book is very exciting. So bring in Blurb.com.

Blurb is a great website that allows you to create your own book. And having made my first one it really is very simple and easy to use and I got it today and it is just SO cool!

The book can be made in a variety of sizes and covers at varying costs depending on your budget.

Once you have downloaded the software onto your computer, which is very simple, you’re ready to go. All the various predefined layouts for the page are listed on the left hand side which you can select depending on which photo text combo you so desire. There are 32 layouts provided allowing for full bleed images, a full page of text or anything in between.

With regards to adding images this is also easy and intuitive. If you want to use your own pictures you have to import them which is again straightforward.

Images are added to a page by dragging them from the image library on the left of screen to the placeholder on the page. Once added the image can be rotated, resized and realigned. Custom borders can be used and the software will also warn if the image resolution is too low and should be zoomed out.

Text can by typed or copied and pasted in and most installed fonts can be used. Again you will get a warning if there is too much text.

Once the book is completed it is uploaded to their website and then can be ordered from there and shouldn’t take more than a couple of weeks to get to you.

My book was 28 pages long, with premium paper and a high quality cover and it cost around £ 22 in total  including delivery which I think is pretty good value for money. And I have to say I really am impressed with the final product and I hope the lucky person who it’s destined for likes it too.

For further details check out www.blurb.com

Girl Geek Alert

Make sure you use spell check, I double proofed and tripled proofed but still missed a few spelling mistakes!