Ramon B. Nuez Jr and Zev Mo Green give our 5 Kinect family game night picks for the holiday season.

1. Kinect: Disneyland Adventures
2. Kinectimals Now With Bears
3. Fruit Ninja Kinect
4. Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster
5. Xbox 360 Kinect: Sports Season Two

Stats:

All these games require Kinect

Pros:

Kinect: Disneyland Adventures

• Love walking around Disney and hugging the characters
• Taking pics was cool
• Characters will sign your book
• Jump-in co-op mode nice

Kinectimals Now With Bears

• Love playing with the bears -Great graphics

Fruit Ninja Kinect

• Just pure fun with the family or party

Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster

• Very interactive

XBOX 360 Kinect: Sports Season Two

• Incredibly fun and golf is addictive

Cons:

Kinect: Disneyland Adventures Kinect is necessary

• Some movements are complicated with Kinect (i.e. paddling a boat)

Kinectimals Now With Bears

• None really but may be boring for older kids

Fruit Ninja Kinect

• None really

Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster

• A little bit difficult to navigate through the stories

XBOX 360 Kinect: Sports Season Two

• Kinect did not always react to voice commands

Zev Mo (@ZevMo) from Dads on Tech gets an amazing opportunity to speak with Warren Spector (Creative Director, Junction Point – Disney Interactive Studios) about his new game title, Disney Epic Mickey.

Disney Epic Mickey is an upcoming Mickey Mouse video game designed by Warren Spector, with 2D cinemas by Powerhouse Animation Studios, Inc. and developed by Junction Point Studios for the Wii console, using Emergent Game Technologies’ Gamebryo Engine.

This Video is available on both Mouseketweeter and DadsonTech.

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I had the opportunity to review the ultracompact Kodak EASYSHARE M381 12 MP digital camera on our last trip to Walt Disney World.  I find it helpful to do reviews on these trips because it is a trial by fire, so to speak.  Within just a few days, you can put electronics through their paces in all kinds of circumstances.  Indoor, outdoor, hot, cold, strangers taking the pictures, quick shots, evening, and morning.  So it was no surprise that Kodak, who has a partnership with Disney, would do well in this regard.

Everyone knows that Kodak is a leader in photography.  As I have written before, they seem to be focused on the delivery of products that consumers can easily use and whose precious memories will preserved by great results.  That is clearly what sets Kodak apart from other manufacturers in this space.

The Specs

For the full list, you can check out the specs on Kodak’s site.  I’ll give you the essentials:

• 1/2.3-inch CCD sensor w/12.7 MP (12.2 MP effective) resolution
• 5X optical zoom/5X continuous digital zoom (Optical Aspheric Lens with 35–175 mm (35mm equiv.) focal length and f/3.0–4.8 aperture)
• Built-in mechanical lens cover
• 3.0-inch display (230K)
• 32MB internal memory with SD/SDHC card support
• QuickTime video capture VGA (640×480) @30fps or QVGA (320×240) @30fps
• Face detection (up to five faces)
• Blur reduction technology
• Multiple scene (19) and color modes (5)
• SHARE Button (uploading of pictures and video directly to YouTube™ or KODAK Gallery)

First Impressions

Taking the camera out of the box, you notice that it has a pretty solid feel at 5.6 ounces (some reviews said otherwise, but I disagree), and is certainly thin enough to go in your jeans pocket.  As you can see by the pictures, the buttons are clearly marked and are exactly where you would expect them.

The camera comes in Black Olive, Light Steel Blue, or Wine Red.  We had the Light Steel Blue, and it was very nice… all three colors are perfectly masculine enough for dads.  The chrome accents are nice, and the battery/SD slot door felt durable enough for frequent use.

After fully charging the battery, which can be done while in the camera with a USB cable into your pc or the wall charger, we threw in an SDHC card and were off to the races.

Performance

The camera is pretty fast, and driving the purposefully simple menus was easy.  Start-up shoot time (power-on until shot) was quick, about 2-2.5 seconds.  The Smart Capture Mode (fully automatic) setting will work for 95% of your shooting needs, but the custom scene selections seemed to help a lot in low-light, macro, or portrait situations indoors (like a birthday party or school play).

Your other choices off the top knob are: Program (Manual), Blur Reduction (electronic), Sport, Panorama (3 pictures), Scene (Situation photography), and Video. The flash seemed to have the best results from about 2-8 feet from shooting position.  Anything more than that, you are going to want to adjust accordingly.

Additionally, one important test that I always do with any camera is to give it to the kids to take a few pictures.  If they can figure out what knobs and buttons to press to get a good picture, then it is easy to use.  The M381 passed that test.

The menus are basic, and could use a quick UI refresh, but are clear and easy to understand, plus there is an ‘info’ button that gives you more information should you need it.  That is a really nice touch.

Pictures

Camera photo reviews are always a mixed bag, and are completely situational.  Every camera in this class will have practically the same review results, but there are exceptions.

Overall the results were good, due to the quality of both the optics and the Perfect Touch system.  Outdoor shots are where this camera really shines.  Even well-lit shots at night were also very nice.  But when you get above ISO 400 you start seeing some drop-off in picture quality.  You can compensate with using things like using the custom scene modes, or a tripod, but it will only get you so far an ultra-compact 1/2.3 CCD.

There is an option between Continuous AF (camera is always focusing) and Single AF (focus when the shutter button is pressed halfway).  My recommendation is to use Single AF.  Not only does continuous use a lot more battery life, but it is noticeably noisy.  Also, the preview of your picture on the back LCD is not the sharpest, and makes you think that your picture didn’t come out as well as it did.  This can cause some retakes, even though the picture was perfect the first time.

Battery life was not bad, we got about 300 pictures and videos in before we needed to recharge, but having the in-camera USB charging made it handy when we got back to the hotel.

On a side note, I really liked the panorama option (3 pictures digitally stitched together), which I think only works in horizontal position.  I could see using this a lot more, even though most consider it a niche format.

Video

The video results were OK for an ultracompact, but there seemed to be an overexposure in the automatic white balance settings (perhaps it is my issue) that made the video seem washed.  Keep in mind that the video is 640×480 @30fps, so it is NOT HD video, but I did expect better video results for this model.

The movies are in Quicktime JPEG format, and I assume they did some tweaking to the encoding to make the uploading to YouTube™ faster.  From what I understand, there is a 16 minute maximum clip time, but we never attempted to take movies longer than that.  Audio quality was also good.

Final Thoughts

We enjoyed using this camera because it was an easy to use, all-purpose camera.  The $129-169 price tag is VERY competitive for all of its features.

A few options that I would have liked to see:

• 720p video (as several competitors now do)
• geo-tagging (which may be asking a lot for the price/size)
• optical image stabilization (not electronic).

For an easy to use camera to use in bright conditions (or indoor with a flash), for around $130, you should consider the Kodak Easyshare M381 as a great option.

Other Links

Test Drive Features of the M381: HERE

On-line Extended User Manual: HERE

Gallery

So we pick up 2010 right where we left off 2009 – speculating what Jobs will be announcing on January 26th at the Yerba Buena Center. The hopes are set rather high that Jobs will make the announcement we have all been waiting for – the Apple tablet. Unfortunately, the pricing rumors are a bit unsettling. It has been reported that the price point could be anywhere between $700 to $900. According, Pete Cashmore Apple is plaining on selling 10 million tablets in 2010. I don’t see Apple selling 10 million units in 2010 at a price point nearly $1000.

What we can report with certainty is that Apple has been in talks with various publishers, broadcasters and movie studios to bring subscription based services to iTunes. The Wall Street Journal has reported that CBS and Disney are interested in partnering with Apple to provide TV subscription services. It’s still unclear how much Apple will charge for the TV subscription service – some are saying $30 a month. Additionally, it is unclear if CBS and Disney will be making their entire portfolio of TV shows available. My first guess would be no – we would see the availability of only a handful of shows. Apple plans to launch the TV subscription service sometime in 2010.

With Apple cutting these content deals and the tablet rumored to be coming in at just under $1000, are we really talking about an iPhone on steroids? I think we are more looking at an Apple media tablet. I am not just talking about the content already available on iTunes, that is a given. I am talking about news papers, text books, magazines all updated in real time, living stories and Internet TV - all operating on a 3G or 4G network; even white-space is a strong possibility.

I believe that the success of the Apple tablet will depend on a fine balance of price and content. Too much of one and not enough of the other and Apple will not be selling 10 million units in 2010.

Last week, Disney Parks Blog gave some wonderful screenshots of their new Mobile Magic Application.  The concept is this, if you are a Verizon Wireless subscriber, you can download the application for $9.99, that’s good for 180 days.  And for a limited time (I assume until January, while they are stretching the app’s legs), it is free for 24 hours.

If you aren’t a Verizon Wireless subscriber, like me (iPhone), you can have access to some very “basic” information (mostly the essentials- weather, operating times, magic hours, dining info, etc) through the web at http://m.disneyworld.com.

The app promises “FASTPASS return times, attraction wait times for the park you are in, extensive information on character locations and more for Walt Disney World and Disneyland theme parks.” I am looking forward to testing the app out in January, once I get a demo unit from Verizon, since I am on AT&T with the iPhone.

We’ll see what the accuracy of the fastpass and attraction wait times are, although I assume it uses historical statistics, or another algorithm for the calculations.  If it is wired, accurate, and not too vague, I will be very impressed.

The Disney Mobile Magic BREW application (the kind that you see on non-smart, or touch screen, phones) will be very useful for people who use those kinds of devices.  DPB did mention that “touch” phone support will be expanding, so I assume that there will be a Java-based app for the Android and Blackberry smart-phone segments as well.  That is something that I would be very interested in.

I see there being a third-way here.  I understand strategic partnerships, and they certainly serve a purpose here, but the next phase of the WDW experience should go even farther.  The next evolution, in my personal opinion, should be property-wide wireless networking.  This is not small task, despite the flat geography of the 35,000 acres of Disney property.  However, with personal wireless devices, and laptops/netbooks being so ubiquitous (and becoming more every day), it is the next logical step in creating an entire experience for the guest.

With this implementation, all of the data is served instantaneously to the guest, on demand, and also by using in-network geo-tagging.  We have already seen a portion of this technology implemented in the parks, if you remember Pal Mickey.  Future wireless devices, the iPhone for example, are going to be equipped with RFID devices that can be triggered when in close proximity to some object or place.

Two ways to deliver content:

a) Application-based: An application can be developed for the device (OS platform dependent) that operates both inside and outside the park.  When the application detects being on the internal wireless-LAN for the park, it will shift content accordingly, and/or operate on a different cost basis, if desired.  This would provide the richest 2-way content and most information for Imagineers, especially when incorporated with RFID.

b) Web-based: Access from any web capable device from within the park’s wireless-LAN.  This delivers content on a demand, however guest location can be somewhat determined on a limited basis.  Information is instant, and controlled.

Access over the wireless-LAN, rather than bulky carrier-based data access, gives a higher Quality of service for the guest.  It also alleviates the applications need to keep updated and synchronized data usually plagued by version-control problems, and coding/device issues, that can become an unruly mess.  Plus, with a username and a MAC address, you can empower the guest, see what they want to do, where they want to go, and when they want to do something.  You get a complete analysis in order to give Imagineers the information on how to best design and cater to the way that guest actually visit the property, not just how you think they do, or want them to.

Offering this as an add-on service, you can integrate things like photopass, where you can buy your pictures that evening from your room, a restaurant, or even poolside.  The ideas are endless, but the system is essential.  I’m sure this has to be on Disney’s radar.  Especially that you can integrate a Social Networking experience, exclusively on property, as a new “attraction” to the park.

On the hardware front,the most common devices capable of allowing for rich content delivery are smartphones (iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Palm).  Being able to deliver custom content on these devices can be done by browser alone, but rich content that gives true 2-way data (which is the ROI for all of the infrastructure outlay), needs a formal app.

Here’s the list of phones that the BREW app is currently available on:

– LG Glance
- LG VX Chocolate
- LG Chocolate 3
- LG Decoy
- LG VX 8700
- LG Venus
- Moto Adventure
- Nokia 7205
- Samsung Renown
- Moto 325
- Samsung 540
- Samsung 550
- LG 5500
- Nokia 6205
- Moto 755
- UT Starcom 8950
- UT Starcom GC1-c711
- GZ1 – S Boulder
- Moto K1 -M
- Moto – L7c
- LG 8350
- Samsung Trance
- Moto V3m
- Moto Barrage
- Moto VU204

If you are like me, I am always impressed with Disney Imagineering.  There is no doubt that the future within the parks will incorporate devices that guest already bring with them.  The best example is Space Mountain‘s games while in the queue.  In the future, you can interact with the ride, or be involved somehow with a shared experience (group gaming, scenario creation- like Spaceship Earth, etc.) using the devices you now carry, through the network app.

I can’t wait!