While neither of us are heavy into the skateboarding world, we both enjoy watching it and when Sony offered us tickets to come on down and check it all out how could we say no?

We arrived early and found all sorts of booths and experiences set up outside of TD Garden. With an extreme sports angle, the variety of what people were offering surprised both of us. Where else would you find the National Guard letting kids ride segways and then just down the way a Paul Mitchell salon doing hair cuts and coloring directly across from a gigantic inflatable Nerf Dart Tag arena?

Sony had three tents set up as well, each with a unique theme that was an instant attraction for Dylan. Inside of one, they had a huge 18 wheeler truck that opened up to have screens and Playstation 3 consoles all along both sides and inside as well. Kids (and parents) could walk up and play some of the newest game releases. Dylan was stuck playing Time Crisis for quite some time and I wasn’t going to complain because the air conditioning felt awesome.

For me, the coolest thing we saw was the new 3D gaming options from Sony. I had to give my license to check out some glasses, but then we got to play and let me tell you that it was amazing. I haven’t been caught up in all the hype over 3D televisions and such, but after playing a couple of games in 3D I instantly got the appeal. I just hope that the glasses are not  expensive or it is going to suck for gaming because as you can see in the picture above, watching a game without the glasses sucks. Part of the fun of home gaming is having others be able to watch while some play.

Dylan’s favorite part was being able to play a game of Nerf Dart Tag. Before the tournament started (who knew they had a country wide tournament going on?) they were letting kids go in and setting them up in teams of four to play. It reminded me a lot of speed paintball except with Nerf guns. I got to go in and take pictures while he was playing and it was a lot of fun to watch. Of course I wish they rented the arenas, because it could be a lot of fun to set one of those up at a party!

After spending several hours outside at all the free exhibits we headed in to watch the competition. It was weird to see a half pipe inside of the Boston Garden, but it was a blast to watch. Dylan (and me) were looking forward to seeing Shaun White compete, but he was hurt so we had to settle for watching him get interviewed on the big screen.

All in all we had a great day together and ended it by getting some slices of pizza from Quincy Market before heading home.

The Dew Tour will continue on into the fall with stops in Chicago, Portland, Salt Lake City and ending in Las Vegas. You can buy tickets here as well as find out more information. If you get a chance to go, I highly recommend it!

If you want to see more picture, view my whole Dew Tour set.

Related posts:

1. Gaming Kids
2. The Dark Days of Sports
3. Two Great Playstation 3 Family Games

If we found an affiliate link for the product we will be using it, but of course buy from the vendors that you like and let us know of any other gifts you think we might have missed.

Canon PowerShot S90
Pictures make the world go around and while there are tons of great digital SLR cameras out there, sometimes you want something small and compact that can still take great pictures. We love the Canon S90 because while you can pop it into Auto mode and shoot beautiful photos, it also has tons of manual modes for the seasoned photographer to tweak to their hearts content. It takes a standard SD card and is small enough to fit in your pocket.

If you are looking for something more high end, we are all fans of the Canon 5D Mark II or the Canon 7D. Both are amazing cameras if you have the budget for them.

Apple iPad
This is one gift that any Dad would love to have. Trust us when we say that after a week with an iPad, anyone is going to love having the device in their house. Don’t believe us, watch what Emily thinks of it.

We’ll leave it up to you if the WiFi only one is enough or if the 3G model would be a better purchase. Every day new content is being released for the iPad and it makes the perfect coffee table computer. If you pick one up, consider getting a case for it as well. There are a lot of them out there, but we like the simple basic one from Apple that gets the job done great.

Sony Dash
We’ve gotten to know the team at Sony pretty well and they sent us a Dash. I’ve been using it as an alarm clock since my wife was sick of having the clock on her side of the bed go off early in the morning when I had to get up and catch an early flight or train.

While the UI leaves a lot to be desired, we’ve heard rumors of an update coming very soon. You can add all sorts of apps to it so that besides the time and weather it also pulls in other things. For instance, I’ve currently got mine showing a web cam of Jackson Hole, Wyoming (a dream place to visit), my flickr photos and the latest from The Onion. I love that it has a nighttime and power-saver mode for those times when you don’t need all the information. For the Dad who loves to always be connected this is a fun idea.

Google TV Logitech Box
If the iPad introduces us to the idea of no longer being bound to the sofa and TV for video entertainment, then the Google TV Logitech Box introduces us to the idea that you no longer need to be bound to broadcast television for an entertaining TV experience.  By harnessing Google’s search prowess and the internet, video viewing is taken to the next level with Google’s newest appliance.  The box can even be used with your paid television subscription—but why would you?

We debated having this on the list since it doesn’t actually come out till the fall, but it was too cool to pass up. Stay up to date on the latest here.

Crosley Revolution Turntable
The digital music revolution changed the game for all facets of music—production, distribution, and consumption.  For those who still savor vinyl, then the Crosley Revolution Turntable is for you.  Providing musical freedom at 33 1/3, the Crosley’s minimal design allows you to focus on what is important,  the crisp sound of vinyl.  Minimal in design, the Revolution includes accouterments that will satisfy any geekofile—battery powered, dual headphone jacks, built-in stereo speakers, and USB for analog-to-digital conversions.  This isn’t your fathers record player.  The Crosley Revolution is a turntable for the new millennium.

Red Dead Redemption
If the Dad in your life owns a gaming system of any sort you should get this game immediately. Set in the wild west, you play a gunslinger on a mission to clean up for his past. The free form game plays means that this game will rock for the most hardcore of gamers or the most casual. The visuals are beautiful and you could honestly spend hours just riding around in the world until you forget that the setting son is nothing but computer pixels.

Of course, since this game is from Rockstar Games (the creators of the Grand Theft Auto series) this is not a kids game. There are plenty of guns and blood so keep that in mind before you have your kids play along with Dad.

Griffin Simplifi Dock
We like to keep our desks organized and when we first reviewed one of these we fell in love. It serves as both an iPod/iPhone dock as well as a compact flash and SD card reader all in one. As if that wasn’t enough it has 2 USB ports in the back as well. We loved this product so much that we’ve bought several of them for all the desks in our lives.

What we are really hoping for though is that Griffin will come out with a new version that will also work with the iPad. But, we haven’t heard anything yet.

Kodak Pulse
Several of us here are avid photographers and are always on the hunt for a good digital picture frame. There are many of them out there and when Kodak gave us one of these to play with, we honestly were not expecting much different, but were pleasantly surprised. With a built in touch screen, anyone with a WiFi connection will be up and connected in no time. The frame allows photos to be uploaded from Facebook and the Kodak Gallery or have them e-mailed directly to it. We are still hoping they add a Flickr option in the future.

While we wish the frame came in bigger sizes (it only comes in a 7 inch version as of now), we do think this would be perfect for grandparents who have a WiFi connection because it allows for the newest pictures of the grand kids to be e-mailed directly to the frame for nice surprises. It can store thousands of photos so you won’t outgrow it anytime soon.

Related posts:

1. Mother’s Day Gifts
2. Father’s Day Gifts: Books
3. Father’s Day Gifts: Something Different

If you over simplified the description of what one is, you could call it a big iPhone and while that isn’t far from the truth it is really not an accurate description. It is their first true tablet computer and one that I believe does have a place in your family and I wanted to highlight some of the apps for it that we are already enjoying.

Now, please remember that it hasn’t even been out for more then two weeks and these are only the ones that we’ve discovered or have been told about that are made for the iPad.

There are a ton of great apps that were released before the iPad that are family friendly and they will work on the iPad, but I wanted to focus on applications that have been built to take full advantage of the new platform rather than just working. I’m also not including prices because I know many have special pricing when I bought them and could change at any time. All links will go directly to the iTunes store.

In no particular order:

• Netflix
  You will need to have a Netflix account in order to utilize this, but what is great is that a portion of their library is now available for live streaming to a variety of devices including the iPad. So as I laid on the couch last weekend recovering from knee surgery with a couple of clicks I was watching Singles in my lap on this application.
• Artist’s Touch
  One of my students at the University of San Francisco told me about this program so I checked it out because I knew the kids (and me) would want to be able to sketch and draw. Out of all the applications we have tried, this is the best for simple doodling with enough options to really let an artist grow in it. Allowing you to choose from a variety of papers, textures, colors and creation tools, I might never get the iPad back from Emily ever again. One word of advice, unless you are a finger painting master I suggest buying a Pogo Stylus that my friend Whitney Hoffman told me about. It does a great job working as a stylus and the ones that come with a Nintendo DS don’t work. I know because I tried! *laugh*
• The Weather Channel
  Every morning now when the kids ask us, “what is it going to be like today?” we tell them just to look at the iPad. If you share your location with it, the local weather comes right up and clearly shows in animated pictures what the day and the week ahead looks like. If you want more detail it also has live streaming video weather, radar and other goodies.
• Epicurious
  We love to cook and every family should spend time in the kitchen together. Pulling new content from the web keeps this app full of fresh recipe ideas with big, bold pictures and shopping lists. Although you can’t print them out yet (a failing of the iPad, not the app), I could easily see us setting this on the counter in a cookbook holder while we made dinner. They have the ability to star favorite recipes, so we’ve been going through starring some new ones to try. Great way to get the kids involved in what you are eating.
• Doons
  Laura and the kids love to play casual games and this has quickly become one of their favorites. You are presented with a screen of funny faced blocks and you must shoot up new ones to make groups of three or more and they will fall away. As you level up, it of course gets harder and harder. Simple fun that as long as a child can match colors they could play this.
• Tumbles
  Based on the wildly popular Scope or Pop’em style of game, this takes it further by taking advantage of the accelerometer in the iPad and physics. You can now tilt, tap and move around the balls on the screen to line them up before popping them. I’ve gotten so many laughs out of watching Laura tilting the iPad around and around while playing this game. It is her all time favorite style. While, not my cup of tea, I do like that it has a head-to-head option so that we can play against each other.
• Labyrinth 2 HD
  Remember those old wooden boxes in class, that you turned the knobs to navigate a ball through a maze without falling into to holes? Well that is this, but in addition to the classic vibe, has been updated with lasers, fans and trap doors. I love watching the kids try to figure out the puzzles and trying over and over until they figure it out. Sounds easy, but it isn’t. Frustrated me in no time! I’m not much a puzzle fan.
• Marvel Comics
  I don’t want to start a DC vs. Marvel fight or anything like that and personally I’m rooting for a third party like Panelfly to push forward and come out with one big comic reader, but for now this is the app to get. The panel by panel reading takes care of the “I don’t know what order to read in” that Emily told me is why she doesn’t get comic books. One warning though, they make it super easy to buy more and I found myself spending a chunk of change in no time, which I haven’t done on comics since I was a teenager.
• GoodReader
  While not the sexiest of apps, it is one of the most useful. Able to open up documents of every common type it also will connect with locations that you store your documents including Dropbox, Google Docs and iDisk. It sounds overly simple and not needed until you actually start using it and then that is when you realize you must have this.

I’m sure as we use it more, I will find more, but I wanted to give you some starter suggestions in case your house now has an iPad in it.

What applications have you found that you and your family like?

Related posts:

1. Family Vacations: Atlantis
2. Two Great Playstation 3 Family Games

Cast of Dads #13 (listen or subscribe) focused on that topic. One of the other Dad’s likes how his son and him are using Foursquare to keep each other updated on where they are. But, of course this is passive and it only works IF they check into a location.

There is technology out there, and more coming I’m sure, where we could almost monitor our kids movements similar to the way scientists track migrating whales and antelope. But, do we want this? Is it even really needed or have we really gone to far in our constant worry that the big evil world out there is going to swallow up our kids.

While the peace of mind something like this might give me, I think right now I lean more towards the side of letting them being kids. Letting them go and do what they are going to do. I know they are going to tell me they are going one place and end up at another. They are going to sneak around and do things they don’t want me to know. It is all part of growing up and figuring out boundaries.

I want my kids to know that I trust them. My parents let me go out and wandering around without them knowing exactly where I was and guess what? I turned out ok. Generations of kids have gone out without this technology and somehow society has continued to push forward.

The world is not any scarier then it use to be. It is just that we all hear about the bad more then the good now. The media loves to throw us into a panic over almost anything because everyone watches and tunes in for more, but the boogieman that we all worry about has always been out there since the dawn of time.

My kids need to know I trust them. If I’m tracking their every move I don’t see how that can ever happen.

What do you think?

Related posts:

1. Internet Safety For Kids – Be Involved. Not Stupid.

“I am not completely sold on gesture gaming like the Wii being the future. It definitely is changing the scope of gaming, but not for me.”

Having recently sold my Wii, I had been reflecting on my motivation for purchasing it in the first place — because I had bought into the idea of interactive games, believing it to be the future of gaming.

I should mention, I am an avid (read: hardcore) video game enthusiast and like a large number of fathers my age (or expectant fathers like myself) — I have been playing for most of my life.

All of which is to say that any technological advance in the video game industry is quite likely going to pull at my game playing heartstrings with some level of success.  But with motion and gesture gaming as part of the mainstream, where children, parents, and grandparents alike are now active gamers, I find myself dissatisfied with the prospect of this new frontier being acknowledged as the future of gaming.

Especially where children are concerned.

Photo by Scott Richard’s Photography

Continuing my rant online, I followed-up by suggesting that,

“Many parents would argue to the contrary — but i’d guess they are allowing video games to replace the power of imagination for their kids.”

While I am just over a month before leveling-up to full-blown status as a father, I feel compelled to highlight the fact that parents would argue that gesture and motion gaming like the Wii or Microsoft’s Project Natal for the XBOX 360 are the future because it raises their activity level by putting them in motion.

Concluding my entitled and unsolicited opinion slinging on Twitter, I declared,

“The argument that gesture/motion gaming gets kids off the sofa (to me) implies that parents weren’t doing it right in the first place.”

I did receive some honest commentary that suggested,

“Here’s what many parents don’t like to confess; you let kids play video games b/c it buys peace and quiet. Uncomfortable to admit.”

I don’t doubt that what was mentioned is true for a large majority of parents whose children actively play video games.  My contention is with the fact that this passive escape could be the reason parents agree that gesture and motion gaming is the future; because it gets them off the sofa (and affords the parents a brief reprieve from, you guessed it — being a parent).

As a professed hardcore gamer, and someone who is likely to allow my own son to play later on in his life, that notion is one I have difficulty understanding and agreeing with 1) because it still somehow implies that playing video games are bad unless 2) they get your kid off the sofa and 3) it removes accountability for the parent, normally charged with encouraging an active lifestyle for their child (out in the world).

I am sure there are many of you who struggle with the same thing.  It is an interesting conversation I hope to see take place here on Digital Dads.  There is nothing wrong with your child being a sofa king.  A little hand/eye coordination never hurt anyone.

There is something wrong with parents, however, who allow their children to forego a little imagination off the sofa, away from the console, and out in the world.  Perhaps you disagree? If so, why?

Related posts:

1. Gaming Kids
2. Two Great Playstation 3 Family Games
3. Father’s Day Gifts, Vol. 1

Now that I’ve got that out of the way, I need to slap a little reality into all the parents out there who are scared to death of their kids getting online.

I recently spoke at an elementary school about Internet Safety. It was a small group of parents, but I was excited about it because I wanted to really answer their questions. As the organizer of the event explained some of what the school was already up to (including the awesome idea of a secured Ning site for their students to interact with other students around the world) and two police officers briefed them on all the scary facts about online dangers, I began to get worried. I could see that some of the parents were genuinely scared when they found out their kids were talking to other kids and adults (school staff in this case) online. But, I also knew I had my kids in the room with me and I wanted to show them from one parent to another why all of this is a good thing and not something to run away from.

If you are a parent, you need to realize that your kids ARE going to be online. They are going to set up social networking accounts, talk to complete strangers on them, watch videos, chat, etc. They are going to do this no matter if you let them or not. They may not do it at home, but they will do it at school and when they are hanging out with friends. Just like experimenting with drinking, drugs and each other, it is part of growing up. We all went through it and turned out ok for the most part so it is up to us to help our kids get through it as well.

With all of these issues and especially the online piece the answer is you MUST be involved. You too must be checking out these sites and using them so that you understand what they are all about and can teach your kids how to use them. You are responsible to teach them the right and wrong way to use the Internet. Just like you are responsible for teaching them about safe driving, safe sex and say no to drugs. It is up to YOU to teach them..

Some practical advice I gave to the parents that night and that I want to share with you:

1. Get Yourself Online
   I don’t want to hear you whining about not having time or barely understanding e-mail. Your kids are growing up with a computer as an integrated part of their lives and will always be. If you have a computer in the house then they are going to start using services like Facebook, YouTube and others and you must understand them as well. These services are free and honestly the only way to understand them is to use them. Make sure to always check the privacy settings on each service as they are not all the same, but they are all important as they control who can see what about you. Still confused? Ask your kids to show you them or find someone at your children’s school who can answer your questions.
2. Put The Computer In a Family Space
   I won’t allow my kids to have computers in their rooms even though they keep asking me for it. When we got them a computer last Christmas, we put it in the living room. That way when they are on it we can always see what they are doing. We also have several laptops in the house and they know they can’t bring those up to their room either. Anything they should be doing online they should be comfortable doing with us around. Plus, this way I can see how long they’ve been online and kick them off it when appropriate.
3. Monitor Them
   I’m not talking about secret spying, but Emily and Dylan both know that we have parental controls turned on the computer. They know that I can go back and look at every site they’ve been to. This is not a secret and it is important that they know this. I don’t want to snoop around and I won’t ever go into their e-mail or track their IM conversations, but keeping a web history that they can’t delete is something I will do. The newest Mac OS and Windows 7 both have these sort of controls built in. There are other software options out there that can do even more then this, but the basics can be covered by what you have.
4. Talk to Your Kids
   I’ve made it very clear to the kids what is inappropriate. Just like I taught them not to talk to strangers or ever get in someone else’s car, I’m also teaching them what not to do online. First names only, never give a home address, being vague about where they go to school and the town they live in. User accounts are always a silly name rather than their own. They never give out a phone number. All things that hold true online and off and as they begin to get older and use it more, I will talk to them more about it. It is part of our every day conversation and it is not uncommon to hear “You’ve got to see this video on YouTube” come up at dinner. And just like “the talk”, this can not be a one time thing. You have to keep talking about it.
5. Don’t Fear Google
   If I hear one more time “your kids might see porn if they mistype something into Google” I am going to scream. Google has simple settings that you can set on your computer to hide that sort of content. It isn’t perfect, but it will filter out the majority of it on your home computers. Plus, guess what? Your kids are going to see naked people at some point in their lives. They might actually go and seek it out on the web out of curiosity or other reasons. Shocking I know.

   But, again it is up to you to teach them what is right and appropriate and what is not. Search engines are amazing tools. Just the other night i was showing my son how to filter for images for a project he was working on and I had no worries about porn coming up when we searched for “vikings” because I knew the settings I had set would keep it clean. But. school computers, or ones at friend’s house might not have these settings so that is why you must talk about this rather than trying to hide from it.

These are just five tips, but they are five important ones.

To all the parents who think that not allowing their children to get online and sheltering them from the Internet is the solution I have one thing to tell you. You are ignorant and stupid. Sorry to be so blunt, but I refuse’t sugar coat it for you.

Sheltering our children from everything that might be bad in the world is never the solution. No one can live in a bubble and turn out ok. Children need to learn what is good and what is bad and how they are suppose to operate online in order to be successful in their lives. Just because the computer might not be important or needed by you, they are never going to know a world without them.

You need to instill in them what is appropriate. Just like you are going to teach them how to respect others, how to drive a car and how to do good in school. How to act online is just a new part of the parenting puzzle and you are responsible for this whether you like it or not.

I live and breath in this space and I can tell you that the amount of good things that have happened far outweigh the few bad things. I’m more worried about my kids and what might happen to them out in the real world then I ever will be about what they might run into online.

Don’t be stupid. Get active and get involved with your kids online. That is the way a good parent should act.

Related posts:

1. Dog Safety
2. Tracking Our Kids
3. Respect and Manners

So when devices like the Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader came on the market I was cautiously excited because I could see the potential but I wasn’t sure I was ready to give up my paper just quite yet.

I purchased a first generation Kindle and version 2 when it came out as well. I love being able to bring this simple device on a plane with me rather then a hard cover book. Being able to carry piles of books on a single device so I can read whatever I want makes it even more appealing. I’m not sure how I managed before owning one.

As part of the Sony Dads project I was loaned a Sony Reader Pocket Edition™ to review and then send back. They also hooked us up with a couple of coupons so we could buy some books to read on the device for free. I ordered a copy of Candor by Pam Bachorz and The Road (because I want to read it before seeing the movie). I really wanted to spend some time with the device so that I could really review it.

There are a few things I liked about the device, but not many. The size is amazing. It is bigger then an iPhone, but smaller then the Kindle. In my comparisons it was a bit bigger then your usual paperback, but much much thinner.

I also love that when reading a book it actually gives you an accurate count of the number of pages that are left when reading. The Kindle doesn’t do this and it drives me nuts. It may not be all that important when reading a business book, but it is something I want when reading fiction. Finally, the screen is as advertised and it is easy to read in mixed lighting situations.

Now for the list of things I don’t like and there are many:

• There is no buying directly from the device. In fact that is no wireless connectivity on it so when on the road you are stuck with what you put on it ahead of time. I’m a big impulse shopper and have bought more then one book directly from my Kindle while sitting in an airport.
• The overall buying experience leaves a lot to be desired. You must download and install a program onto your computer in order to shop. Has Sony not heard of web browsers? Let me buy from anywhere I am rather then forcing me to buy from the computer I install your software on!
• I’ve heard some complaints about the selection being lacking, but I found everything I was looking for so it wasn’t a problem for me.
• I could not find a way to auto sync purchases to the reader. I finally figured out that I had to connect it to the computer in order to put any books on it, but I also seemed to have to click and drag them in order to put them on the device. I could have easily missed how to do this though.
• I wasn’t a big fan of the look of the device. The line of buttons up the side is overkill and actually confused me at first because I guess I expected the UI to be easier to use and not needing so many buttons.
• I wish it let me make the text smaller. You can make it bigger, but I want a smaller size then the smallest they offer so I don’t have to flip the page as often as I did. As a fast reader with good eyes this drove me nuts.

Needless to say, I won’t be recommending this product for the holidays. I had high hopes for the device. Especially after I opened it up and saw how small it was. That jazzed me up, but I was quickly deflated after using it for a bit.

Everyone knows how to pick up a book and use it and if I can’t pick up a device like this and figure out how to use it then that is a big problem that Sony has to fix before this will be mass adopted.

This post is part of series called the “Sony DigiDad Project” by Sony Electronics where a group of dads, including C.C. Chapman, Jeffrey Sass, Max Kalehoff, Michael Sheehan, and Brad Powell, have been given the opportunity to test and review Sony gear (lent to us by Sony). If you want to know more about this project visit the Sony Electronics Community.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/1

Related posts:

1. Sony Dads
2. Sony Dads: Bravia & Blu Ray Reactions
3. 100 Faces

This go around we were tasked with something they were calling 100 Faces.

Since I’m an avid photographer and my Canon 50D is never far from me if not permanently strapped to my hand I wasn’t sure if I was the right person to test the cameras. They sent us both a Sony A330 DSLR and the Cyber-Shot DSC-TX1 . The first being their entry level digital SLR and the later their newest slick point and shoot on the market.

Yes, I shot a bunch of pictures with both and even filmed a quick video with the point and shoot the minute the batteries were charged, but I am also biased. After playing with the A330 for a bit I posted this video review of it. I’m use to being able to customize lots of things when I shoot pictures and I couldn’t do everything I was use to. So instead of only having me review it, I gave my kids the cameras and let them take pictures with them whenever they wanted. The results are here in this video The 100 Faces by The Chapman Kids (special thanks to Now is Now for the use of their music) :

Both kids had a blast with the cameras and overall I’m really happy with the photos that are produced. The point and shoot has one of the coolest features I’ve seen in a long time with a built in panoramic mode. Turn it on and then just pan the camera and it takes an instant panoramic shot and the results are stunning. Dylan and I had fun playing with this as you can see in this shot.

I was also pleasantly surprised to discover that the A330 can either take a standard CD card or a Sony Memory stick. Kudos on realizing that the memory stick is not the way everyone goes. Unfortunately, on the DSC-TX1 it only takes a Sony memory stick and worse yet it needs a proprietary cable in order to attach the camera to the computer. These two reasons along means that I’d never buy one of these cameras. I want electronics that work with each other rather then requiring me to carry extra cables, readers and special cards.

Neither of the cameras would be something that I personally would purchase, but I’m not the target audience either since I’m already shooting with a camera further up the food chain then both. I will say that if you are in the market for a starter camera on the digital SLR level then check out the A330 when you look at others because it can hold it’s own on most levels I believe. Dylan especially loved the pull out and tilting screen that allowed him to take pictures over his head or low on the ground.

This post is part of series called the “Sony DigiDad Project” by Sony Electronics where a group of dads, including C.C. Chapman, Jeffrey Sass, Max Kalehoff, Michael Sheehan, and Brad Powell, have been given the opportunity to test and review Sony gear (lent to us by Sony). If you want to know more about this project visit the Sony Electronics Community.

Related posts:

1. Grandfathers & Grandsons
2. Sony Dads
3. Weekend Productivity

The exact equipment they have sent me so far includes:

• 46″ BRAVIA Z Series LCD HDTV
• BDP-S560 Hi-Def Bluray DVD player
• VAIO VGN-FW465J laptop
• A330 Digital SLR Camera

A little less then a year ago I was in the market for my first big screen television. I did a lot of shopping, asking friends and doing research before making a purchase like this. What I got asked by every sales person was, “what are you going to be watching mostly on it?” My answer was regular television, sports and movies. Whenever I gave this answer I was pointed away from Sony because “they are too dark.” I took this advice and went with another brand.

Since I’ve got a full surround sound system set up in my living room this means that the Sony got set up in my office. While it may not be Max’s man cave, it is pretty close with a great big leather chair and the world famous bean. I already had a television in here, but it was smaller so it was a welcomed addition to the room.

My schedule didn’t allow to have friends over for the night to play with it as we had hoped for, but I did plenty of playing with all the features. I had to go out and buy an extra long Ethernet chord to test out the Internet features and my television didn’t come with any form of manual so I was flying solo from the beginning. But, then again what guy is going to read the menu right?

My thoughts:

• I love that the TV has the same interface as the Playstation 3 which I have always thought was extremely intuitive. (still don’t get why they didn’t send us one of these, but not my call)
• The pre-selected options for Internet content are great and I was psyched to see my buddies Blip.TV front and center when I first launched the options. I wasn’t so impressed to see that there was only a few podcasts available and that I couldn’t add more like I can on my Apple TV.
• The DVD player has built in WiFi which is SO smart and I wish my personal player had this option, but as Sass pointed out in his post the fact that you have to plug in a USB thumb drive to give enough memory to use BD-Live content doesn’t make any sense to me.
• Having a widgets button on the remote makes passing the time during commercials fun, but they take quite a while to load.
• It was cool to quickly check my @ messages on Twitter which I found very useful, but when I tried typing one to send it took me too long as I’m use to a full keyboard, but it was fun just the same. I’m curious to see what other widgets people are going to develop.
• While Sony may not want to hear this, I will say when using my Xbox 360 with the television the games look amazing. Madden 10 arrived the same day as the television and WOW is all I can say. This TV has certainly raised the amount of time I spend gaming.
• And what about being too dark? It is darker then any other TV in my house, but I watched Football on it the other night without any concerns. It did look different, but not in a bad way at all.

Overall I’m really digging the television. The Internet options are nice and we all know they are going to get better. I really wish that the TV had wireless access as well since I wonder how many people have an Ethernet drop in their living room. I had to run a 25′ cable just to hook this up across the office to my router.

The DVD player worked as advertised and my personal copy of The Dark Night looked awesome on it, but then again I don’t believe any Blu Ray player actually plays a movie different then another one. But, I could be wrong.

I’m very impressed with the equipment the kids are loving having a bigger television in the office (when I let them watch it). I might have to end up buying a new one when I have to return this one. Still not sure what brand though. More playing left to do.

This post is part of series called the “Sony DigiDads Project” by Sony Electronics where a group of dads, including C.C. Chapman, Jeffrey Sass, Max Kalehoff, Michael Sheehan, and Brad Powell, have been given the opportunity to test and review Sony gear. If you want to know more about this project, head on over to the Sony Electronics Community.

Related posts:

1. Sony Dads
2. A Library in Your Hand
3. 100 Faces

I’ve been hoping that brands would begin to realize that Dads are just as active in the decisions being made about what products to buy. I think this is extra true when it comes to electronics and gadgets around the house. So, when Sony approached me about testing out some of their equipment and taking part in their Sony Dads project how could I say no.

Watch my introduction video where I explain why I’m doing it and what it means. (here is the “tripod” I mention in the video)

You can read the press release and in the coming weeks you can expect to see a mix of posts here as I try out the products and share my honest reviews of them. They are sending us this equipment for free and for review purposes only. We have to send them all back.

I’m personally most excited to check out the cameras and the eBook Reader. You all know I’m a camera junkie and a Kindle lover. Stay tuned!

This post is part of series called the “Sony DigiDads Project” by Sony Electronics where a group of dads, including C.C. Chapman, Jeffrey Sass, Max Kalehoff, Michael Sheehan, and Brad Powell, have been given the opportunity to test and review Sony gear. If you want to know more about this project, head on over to the Sony Electronics Community.

Related posts:

1. Sony Dads: Bravia & Blu Ray Reactions
2. 100 Faces
3. A Library in Your Hand