One of the big concerns about the Kindle Fire is the lack of parental controls. In addition to limiting the materials your child has access to. With the setup of the Kindle Fire, your child could potentially go and purchase any paid item as the Fire doesn’t require any kind of confirmation or password for purchase.

Kids Place – With Child Lock does bring some parent control opens to the Kindle Fire. This is available from the Kindle App Store for free.

The way this works is rather then your child having access to every application on the device. You manually select the applications you want them to access. The Kids Place app also requires you to setup a password. Once you launch the app a password is required to exit. Therefore, your child is contained within the environment you set.

Through my trials this works great and is definitely an asset to the device and necessity if you have small children. Once within the Kids Place app, you are stuck there unless the password to exit is entered. The only thing you have to be aware of is in the event your Kindle Fire loses power or is restarted, you will no longer be contained within the app.

This is especially important if you don’t have a lock screen password enabled. With the combination of a lock screen password and the Kids place app. I think it is safe to let your child operate the Kindle Fire alone.  See the below youtube video for more details.

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How does the Kindle Fire Perform Compared to the iPad 2?

The Kindle Fire has many positives and a few flaws. My  biggest issues are Wifi and Touch Recognition. When you put an iPad or other iOS device to sleep. Within a second or so of waking the device, it picks up a wifi signal. The Kindle Fire on the other hand always takes roughly 15 seconds or more to obtain a connection. Often I’ll grab the Fire to lookup something online I just thought of, only to find I don’t yet have a connection. Once you have a connection I’ve never had it drop as some reported. The range is also just as good as any of my other wifi devices. Touch Recognition is rather spotty. This seems to have improved with updates, but is still a problem. You will often click on something only to find it didn’t register. This is particularly an issue when in the browser, which i’ll discuss in the next section. It does occur with the home and other system buttons as well, just less frequently.

How does the silk browser compare to safari for the iPad 2?

The second I got my Kindle Fire, the first thing I did was uncheck: Web > Settings > Accelerate Page Loading. This is Amazons system which is supposed to speed up your browsing experience. However, it is unneeded other than helping Amazon collect your usage statistics and often did the opposite in terms of speed. Clicks often don’t register when selecting links on a page. You’ll often get an orange box around a link, indicating you selected it. However, you have to click the link several times or zoom in and click for it to actually work. This is my biggest issue with the browser. As with iOS devices (double tap text area), there needs to be a shortcut gesture to zoom in on text areas other then pinch. That aside the browsers function just as well. Smooth scrolling, etc.. As a positive for the Fire, it’s nice to be able to make use of the few flash sites I frequent and conduct business as if I were on a computer. Whether you want to watch a YouTube, book a reservation, check your online gaming site, or catch up with the latest news. I find the browser more then capable and actually quite comfortable. I’ve never once missed my iPad screen size.

Kindle App Store VS the iOS App Store

Over 7 years ago when I switched over to Mac from PC. I remember the big complaint being app availability. “XYZ is available for PC, but not available for Mac“. As with the Kindle Fire, I quickly saw that the majority of the big name apps I used were available, and there were features on the new device that didn’t exist on the previous. One thing in particular that is nice on the Fire is the free app a day. Each day a single normally paid app is made free. I’ve came across a few great apps this way. Also if you enable:  Settings > More > Device > Allow Installation Of Applications, you can actually install apps directly from the developers web site. This is a nice touch, not being so tightly locked into the app store.  On the security side. 1-Click purchasing is enabled by default. If you have a child or are not careful. You can rack up some hefty fees in a heartbeat. Parental controls are not as tightly integrated. There are third party apps you may install to bring these functions such as Kids Place – With Child Lock.

Book Reading Experience On The Kindle Fire vs iPad 2

This is where the Kindle Fire shines. I’ve put a few books on the iPad 2, but other then children’s books with generally large pictures, short text and few pages. I could never read a book on an iPad. I could just never find a good level of comfort with the iPads size for reading. As the fire is smaller that obviously equates to being more compact. The Fire fits perfectly in one hand. Whether sitting somewhere, laying in bed, etc.. Reading on the Fire feels no different than an actual book. As far as clarity. Both the iPad 2 and Kindle Fire use IPS screens, so I’ve found that aspect the same. If you did use an iPad 2 or other book reading device prior to the Kindle. The good news is the Fire supports a ton of formats: Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively, Audible (Audible Enhanced (AA, AAX)), DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, non-DRM AAC, MP3, MIDI, OGG, WAV, MP4, VP8.

You can simply email documents and books to your fire and/or transfer them through a micro USB cable (not included). Some physical programming books I have came with DVD’s that included the full PDF version of the book as well. It’s nice to be able to transfer those over.

All in all I think the Kindle Fire is a great device. I think the same of the iPad 2. I purchased the Fire for book reading, web browsing, movies and light gaming. The thing is that’s the same reason I purchased the iPad 2. Both are great devices, so the deciding factor should be your intended use.

You should be able to change the name of your Kindle Fire by clicking here.

However, I’ll list the steps as well. Once in your Amazon accountant logged in:

1. Click Your Account in the top right
2. Scroll to Digital Content and select Manage Your Kindle
3. In the left column click Manage Your Devices
4. Click edit next to the current Kindle Fire name and Update
5. Pull down your Kindle Fire notification bar and Sync
6. Voila

Debt is bad. Even for the small percentage, such as myself who used it somewhat in a strategic matter (it there is such a thing) and didn’t let it pile up to their eyeballs.

I need gas to get to work such, as does most of America. At the beginning of each month I’d put aside my gas allowance. Took my credit card with me only on the days I needed gas, and used it for that purpose only. No energy drinks or anything else they sell in the store. I also always paid online in full and with this specific company. Transactions made before the cutoff point would post the same day. In the three years I used them, I never had an issue. Sounds good right, why would I said I’d never use a credit card again?

I originally wanted to use credit to look good when applying for a mortgage. If it’s one thing I hate (there are several actually), it’s people who don’t practice what they preach. I’ll tell anyone in a heartbeat not to use credit. Granted, most people don’t have discipline to follow a plan. I just couldn’t be a contradiction. It goes against what I stand for.

1) What happens when you decide to close an account?

Here is where it got interesting. Every moment I’ve ever saved by swiping my credit card at the pump. I waisted that and more being bounced around from department to department, person to person. No agent wants to close an account. This hassle alone made me regret ever signing up. I’ve been fed the “my system is updating,” “my computer crashed,” “sorry I’ll have to transfer you,” etc.. I guess the cancel department gets worse equipment, because I don’t ever recall experiencing this with other departments. Many people would just hang up and keep the card till a later date. My persistence got it cancelled, my time is more valuable though.

2) The robot customer service representative

I say robot as in, without emotion or understanding, programmed for specific tasks. As if nothing else exists or is possible since it’s not in their system. We’ve all been there, I don’t think I need to further explain.

3) Poor security procedures

If you knew me, you’d probably agree I’m a nice person. Nice or not when I fly and go through TSA I get treated like everyone else. I don’t care if I sound like the coolest person in the world. When I call in, make me verify my information. I’ve made some significant changes to past accounts by only verifying my name and address. Something anyone who picked up my mail could have access to. Macys was my oldest account. I setup a security code  when I opened it. The only time I was ever asked for it was when I closed the account. The potential for issue outweighs anything that could be considered a reward..

4) Credit will be issued without verification

This really is like 3B. I listen to the Dave Ramsey show pretty much daily. He always says creditors will issue credit cards to dogs and dead people. I didn’t take him as serious, but I know it’s a fact now. I’m neither a dog nor dead. However, I was added as an authorized user to a card without my knowledge or permission. If the primary card holder defaults, you’re responsible. Granted it was an honest mistake and although I would have literally read every word of the paper. I understand this mistake as it was falsely advertised as something else. If a credit card company will let you potentially mess up someone else’s life, what’ll think they’ll do to yours? I got it handled, but again. How many hoops did I go through?

5) Once two people know something it’s no longer a secret

This was probably my biggest concern. A lot of these companies outsource their employees. Even if not outsourced. The more people that have your personal information is. The less personal that information has become. I’ve done computer work for a lot of businesses. Therefore, I’m in many contacts. On countless occasions I’ve been emailed by mistake  confidential information.  I just delete it without reading once I realize it wasn’t meant for me. Not everyone is the same though. In other cases information may be stored locally on an insecure computer or network. Again, risk is just not worth it.

Many will say “I use a credit card and never experienced any of these issues.” Nobody ever experiences a problem until they do.

Now that LA Fitness has purchased most of the Bally Total Fitness locations, many questions remain. Details are still sketchy at this point, but I figured I’d consolidate what I found through various sources. The first example applies to me and I personally inquired about it. Unless I was given false information, I’m taking it as being accurate. All other scenarios are just to be taken as what I’ve heard from others. I’ll update this as more solid facts come out.

What if I’m currently paying $24.99 for Bally national access?

From my understanding you will still be able to access your home Bally club unless it is closed, in which case you’ll be given a new home club and still have the ability to access other former Bally clubs.

What if I am paying for a single Bally club?

It is my understanding, as above you can still access that single club unless it closes. In that case you’d be given another single club you may access

What happens to my yearly (multi-year) contract I had with Bally?

This is where it starts to get tricky. It appears LA Fitness only acquired certain types of Bally contracts. From what I’ve read to this point it seems to vary. Many with yearly contracts are ok until their renew dates, at which point they’ll need to change plans. Some with yearly renew dates or longer renew dates have had issues where they were told as of January/February their accounts will no longer be valid.

What happens to my lifetime Bally membership?

What I’ve seen on this topic has been consistent other than one case. There was a single person (on yelp I believe) who said their lifetime membership was honored with the Bally to LA Fitness transition. In the other cases, it appears the memberships are not being honored at all.

In all cases excluding the lifetime members (it appears), for the month of December all former Bally members may visit any LA Fitness location. After December your normal plan terms return.

Will I get a new LA Fitness ID?

Yes, you will get a new ID now that LA Fitness has acquired Bally Total Fitness. There was a line of people waiting to get their ID updated when I entered the club this morning. I previously had the credit card sized Bally ID with my picture. I was given the small LA Fitness card that can fit on your keychain.

What will happen to the Bally staff?

I was glad to see the same staff when I went it their. Contrary to what I’ve heard about many Bally clubs, the staff at my club has always been great so I’d hate to see helpful people lose their jobs. Some sources said the personal trainers were fired. The same trainers were there so I’m not sure that is true, at least not through all clubs. I did see some trainers online saying that their benefits had been taken away after the ownership change. From the LA Fitness web site it appears the former Bally staff has to/had to apply for their same positions. The transition of ownership didn’t carry over employment. Don’t have much details their.

What will happen to my Bally club?

Short term plans should already been known. In some cases, clubs are being closed I’ve seen as early as 12/8. My particular club isn’t closing. Long term it’s been said many clubs will be upgraded, some relocated and others closed. We will see.

How do you feel about Bally being sold and what was your personal experience?

My only thing is the lack of communication from Bally. I didn’t receive any notice until an email I got around 3AM the day the deal was already done. A heads up would’ve been nice. Other than that. As a monthly paying member, I didn’t have a special deal to begin with so my transition seemed to go pretty painless.

Update

Good News! LA Fitness has made some changes to it’s policy. See the below:

UPDATE LA Fitness has decided to simplify the access rules and give all of the acquired Bally Total Fitness (“BTF”) members access to current LA Fitness clubs as described below:

BTF “Local” Members will have access to LA Fitness clubs and acquired BTF clubs in the state of enrollment*;

BTF “National” Members will have access to those clubs in all states*; and
Acquired BTF members who only have single club access will continue to have access to that single club (or, if that club has closed, to another BTF or LAF club nearby).

Members who purchased lifetime memberships at the acquired BTF clubs will continue to have access as described above.

As a side note, from December I’ve switched over and only go to LA Fitness. Although I liked my Bally club and the staff. As far as equipment, space, and availability. LA Fitness has been a better option.

The Casio G-Shock GW3000BB-1A is a Multiband 6 Tough Solar watch. In addition to receiving nightly time updates, the watch is also solar powered. Meaning you’ll never have to worry about chaining the battery.

Off of roughly 20 minutes of direct sunlight. The watch will remain charged for up to 5 month. This watch also has something built in called Neo-brite luminous hands and markers. With sunlight the indicators will glow making them visible in dark places. This doesn’t last for too much of an extended period. For the average person this should be fine. If you’re constantly in low lit environments for long periods of time this can be an issue for you.

All in all I’m very happy with this watch. You may watch my YouTube review for more in-depth information. Two quick questions I will answer here:

How do you check the battery level on an analog G-Shock? 

This is actually told by how the second hand moves. If the second hand moves one second at a time, your battery level is high. When the battery level is low the second hand will move every two seconds.

How do you know whether or not the analog watch received a automatic time update?

When you look at the display you will notice there is a Y between 9-10 and a N between 10-11. Y meaning Yes, N meaning No. When you hold down the A button for a moment, the second hand will move to either Y or N. This will let you know whether or not your time was automatically updated.

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I’ve had my parked car hit on two separate occasions. Once by a drunk driver speeding through my parking lot, and another by a neighbor backing up and not paying attention. In both situations I took on significant damage.

My car also has metallic paint, where unlike a flat paint job. Blending would be required to make sure everything matched up correctly.

To get to the details. The Falls Auto Collision Center not only met, but exceeded my expectations on both occasions.

I pay very close attention to detail and after the work was done, my car looked as if it had just left the showroom floor.  Although it took on significant damage to both rear quarter panels, bumper, etc.. in the first accident. Once repaired, there was no sign of prior damage.

A good test is to not pay attention to the paint on your car, but look at the reflection shown in your paint. Often, although the paint on your vehicle may look good. When paying attention to the reflection you’ll notice that ripple effect where you can clearly see where the repairs began. Not the case at all with Falls Auto. No ripple effect and blending was done so everything was seamless.

The actual bodywork and paint was a 10/10.

The staff are not only knowledgable and professional, but very friendly and helpful. As far as work time, I’d consider it speedy. With the first incident, my car was very damaged. I don’t remember specifically, but I’d say it was about 2 weeks. The 2nd incident, 6 days, technically 4 as two as on two days they were closed (Thanksgiving and Sunday).

Service 10/10.

We all hope to never need a body shop, but should the need arise this is my goto place. A+ to them.

After much trial and error, I found a simple solution that has worked for me.

Settings > General > Reset > Reset All Settings:

Not that this doesn’t delete your content, just the settings. So you will lose any saved WIFI passwords, lock codes, etc..

After changing these settings I can finally not have to worry about not having a charger everywhere I am.

So how to do it:

1. Start by creating a folder as you normally would (dragging one application into another)
2. As soon as the animation pops up around the main application (see picture above) release the app you’re dragging
3. Quickly drag newsstand into the folder as well
4. All set

However, through trial and error. I think I have narrowed it down to why iTunes Match is not showing as an option for most on the iPhone 4S.

iTunes Match is currently still in the beta mode and available in iTunes 10.5.1. Unlike when iOS 5 was in beta, there was no current beta after the GM release.

Long story short.

It appears that iTunes Match is only showing up on the iPhone 4S for users who:

Have restored their iPhone 4S from a backup of a device running iOS 5 beta where iTunes Match was enabled.

If your iPhone 4S was setup as a new device or restored from a backup where iTunes Match wasn’t already enabled you will not see an option to enable it on the GM release of iOS 5.

Basically the settings would’ve needed to be carried over from a previous device for the iPhone 4S

I didn’t purchase iTunes Match until yesterday so I can’t confirm. However, the people that I’ve came across that said it works fall into the above bolded scenario.

How is iTunes Match working or not working for you?

Update 10/19

iTunes match finally started working on my iPhone 4S. First fully resync your iTunes much library in iTunes.

Once the iTunes match sync is complete plug your iPhone for 4S into your computer and sync it. Not a wireless sync make sure to actually plug it in to your computer with the data cable.

Once this is done go back into your settings and music. You should now see an option to enable iTunes match. Once this is done, click the music icon and you should notice the wheel spinning at the top of your status bar showing you that data is being downloaded. After a few moments you should notice all of your cloud music is visible.

I noticed a lot of people were getting stuck in part one or part two of the iTunes match process. Make sure the match process fully completes.

Let me know if this works for you.

Update 2 10/19

I have noticed that many users who are not subscribed to iTunes Match are beginning to see the toggle option and are presented with the below message. That said, it is likely that Apple simply updated the system sometime between last night and this morning, rather then there being a fix. That said, glad it’s working.