Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Buying guide for electronic dance mat for TV / computer

Nowadays, particularly during the Movement Control Order (MCO) period, a kind of electronic dance mat that works together with TV or computer has become a hot selling item in many e-commerce platforms.


This kind of electronic dance mat is a kind of portable floor blanket with electronic sensors underneath, so that it can become an input device to its dancing/gaming console box, using TV or computer screen as its interactive screen display.

It is ideal for home aerobic exercise, and to have a fun interactive time with children.

Normally, the electronic dance mat system has 3 main functions:
  • Dancing with music by accurately stepping at the right region on the mat at the right timing, which could also include waving your hand at the right timing.
  • Aerobic exercise and yoga training by on-screen coaching.
  • Playing console games


Below are some of the key considerations when buying an electronic dance mat for your reference.

1. Dance mat for 2 persons

There are 2 variants of this kind of dance mat. The square single person mat, which is cheaper, and the rectangular 2 persons mat, which is double the size of the single person one.

Unless you are living alone and always using the dance mat alone, otherwise you won't be regret buying the 2 persons mat, so that you can dance together in 2 persons, and playing interactive console games in 2 persons mode.

2. PU surface material

Normally the dance mat surface material is made of either PVC or PU. PVC type is slightly cheaper, but less durable. The PU type is more robust and durable, and provides better touch with the foot. It is also water resistance, and easier to clean.

The PVC type comes with varies thickness, some can be as thick as 30mm to 50mm, depends on the filler foam inside it. The PU type is normally as thick as the thin PVC type without extra thickness. Anyhow, you can always achieve the same thickness effect by laying a layer of tatami foam tiles underneath the PU dance mat. The cost for tatami foam tiles as shown below is much cheaper too.

3. HDMI connection

Older version of the dance mat console box connects to the TV by composite RCA cables. Newer version connects to the TV by HDMI cable.

Unless your TV has limited number of HDMI ports, it is better to choose the dance mat which uses HDMI connection rather than composite RCA connection, as HDMI supports higher screen resolution.

4. Wireless connection

Older version of the dance mat is integrated with its console box. The distance between the dance mat and your TV will then be restricted by the length of the connecting cable.

Newer version of the dance mat connects wirelessly to a separate console box, which in turn connects to the TV with HDMI or RCA cable. In the way, you can place the dance mat anywhere within the wireless communication distance. The dance mat will need to operate using batteries.

5. Wireless hand controllers

Hand controller is another input device beside the dance mat. Beside buttons, it also has a gyroscope sensor inside to detect hand movement.


If your dance mat is for single person, your package will come with one hand controller; if your dance mat is for 2 persons, your package will come with two hand controllers.

There are 2 types of hand controller. The older version is wired to the console box, and the newer version is wireless. You should get the wireless one which provides you with freedom of movement.

Certain dance mat packages don't come with any hand controller. They are either having a console box with camera that can capture your body movement, eliminating the need of using gyroscope in the hand controller, or the package reduced the price by not supplying with the hand controller.

Hand controller is quite essential which playing console games. Without the hand controller, the games could become very difficult to play, less fun, or even totally unplayable.

6. SD-card external storage

SD-card makes it possible to add more games and music to the dance mat system.

More intelligent dance mats can automatically generate dance steps by analyzing on the new MP3 files you store in the SD-card, while other less intelligent dance mats (usually cheaper) will always generate the same set of dance steps regardless what MP3 file you store in the SD-card.

Some cheaper version of dance mat system is without SD-card slot, and you are confined with the games and dancing music provided in the internal storage of the system. You are not able to add more on top of the existing.

7. Language

Most of this kind of dance mat are made in China. Most of their system only come in Chinese language. Some of them have English user interface. If you need English, make sure you choose the correct one, which needs to be explicitly indicate it has English user interface.


Below are some of the optional features and functions that are nice to have, which you can consider as well. Usually these additional features and functions will raise up the price tag of the dance mat accordingly.

a. Dancing stage light

Some dance mat comes with a crystal ball dancing stage light, making it more fun to dance on it.


b. LED guiding lights

Some PU type dance mat comes with LED lights to guide you to step on the right place when dancing on it. Those dance mat with LED lights will consume more number of batteries.


c. Augmented reality

Some dance mat system with camera can make yourself appear in your TV screen as a character. You can then dance interactively together with animated character(s) in the TV. It is also more fun playing games in augmented reality.

d. Connect to computer

Most newer version of dance mat's console box is able to connect to your computer by using a USB cable.

After installing the correct device driver, your computer will then be able to recognize the dance mat and its hand controllers as input devices.

The dance program, exercise coaching program and games are of separate set from those in the console box, and need to be installed in your computer.

There are also third party dance program such as StepMania which you can download and install in your computer to work with the dance mat.

This feature is good to have, because your computer screen is usually much smaller than your TV, unless you use a projector screen. Normally, people will just use the dance mat with TV, and seldom with computer.

Monday, May 4, 2020

How to get 16GB free VPN every month from Windscribe

Windscribe defines itself as "a set of tools that work together to block ad trackers and web beacons, restore access to blocked content and help you safeguard your privacy online". Basically, it is a VPN service with some additional privacy and security protection features such as the R.O.B.E.R.T.

You should consider to use Windscribe if you are looking for a VPN provider that provides at least 10GB free monthly usage to you, without time limit (lifetime validity), without any ads annoyance, with reasonably fast and stable connection, and rapidly improving with new features and functions as well as servers coverage.


Previously, Windscribe used to provide promo code to provide as much as 50GB or even 60GB free monthly usage, but those promo codes are no longer valid. Anyhow, you can still get 16GB and more free VPN every month, by following the steps below.

Click here to create a new Windscribe account, and you will get 2GB free monthly VPN. Note that it is a referral link to give you an additional 1GB VPN per month. If your Windscribe account is opened without a referral, you will only get 8GB free monthly VPN in the next step, instead of 9GB.

Verify your email address with Windscribe, and you will get an additional 9GB free monthly VPN. That will add up to a total of 11GB free VPN per month.

Login to Windscribe website and go to your Account Overview page, click the "Tweet 4 Data" button and post the promotional info to your Tweeter account, you will get another 5GB free monthly VPN. That's how you can reach 16GB free VPN every month.

If you want additional free data, become a referral by following the instruction here. For each successful referral with confirmed email, you will get an additional 1GB per month together with your friend.

If you like Windscribe, you can also upgrade your account to Pro by paying subscription, which will provide you with unlimited VPN data usage, much more servers and locations availability, accessible with same account from unlimited devices, and full features. You can click here to upgrade to Windscribe Pro account with special discount.

Windscribe can be installed in:
  • Computers: Windows, Linux and Mac OS
  • Smartphones and tablets: Android and iOS
  • Web browsers: Chrome and Firefox (will only protect web browsing activity)
  • Routers that support OpenVPN connections
Windscribe supports the following VPN connection modes, and by default will automatically pick the best mode for you:
  • IKEv2
  • OpenVPN TCP
  • OpenVPN UDP
  • Stealth - encapsulates OpenVPN in a TLS tunnel via Stunnel
  • Wstunnel - encapsulates OpenVPN in a WebSocket
Why you need VPN? There are many reasons, to name a few:
  • Protect your privacy from the website or server you visit by masking your actual IP address and location.
  • Stay anonymous to the websites you visited by various privacy tools provided by Windscribe in addition to the VPN connection.
  • Block unwanted ads, malware, etc. with tools provided by Windscribe.
  • Hide your Internet activity from the network devices of public WiFi, company's network device, ISP network device, etc. which might have interest to log and trace your Internet activity.
  • Escape certain kind of data throttling imposed by WiFi provider, school, company, ISP, etc.
  • Escape certain kind of QoS bandwidth throttling imposed by WiFi provider, school, company, ISP, etc.
  • Bypass censorship imposed by WiFi provider, school, company, ISP, government, etc.
  • Access to website, service and/or content that only made available to certain region.
  • Enjoy discounted price available to certain region for online purchasing.
  • Securely access to your internal resources by using Windscribe Port Forwarding.
  • Manually route your network path to oversea server to achieve faster and/or more stable connection by selecting a strategic VPN location.
You might need to make use of Stealth or Wstunnel modes mentioned above in order to escape throttling and/or bypass censorship in certain tough situation.

Sunday, May 3, 2020

List of smart watches, bands, weighting scales and wearable devices that can be linked with Huawei Health

Huawei Health is an integrated mobile application for health management, physical activity journaling, professional exercise coaching and wearable device management. It is available for free download in Google Play Store, Apple App Store and also Huawei App Gallery.

 

Although Huawei Health can work as a standalone mobile app in the smart phone, its power is only unleashed when it is wirelessly paired with smart watch, smart band, weighting scale and/or other wearable devices with Bluetooth.

Huawei Health has a pedometer which can intelligently takes your step counts collected from the handphone and also from all the connected devices, and display the composite result.

It can display the total distance travelled by your body from combined activities of walking, running, climbing and other. It can also display the amount of calories burned from such activities. It can even display the height climbed by your body from the composite data recorded through the barometer in your smartphone and connected wearable devices.

It also provides dashboard for heart rate records, SpO2 blood oxygen saturation measurement, sleep quality analysis, stress level analysis, weight measurement, exercise records, and even menstrual cycle tracking for women (by using data from another mobile app called Huawei Cycle Calendar).

Huawei Health is also a wearable device management center for paired devices. You can use it to upload and change watch faces, upload and manage music in the wearable, configure device settings, and even perform firmware update to the wearable.

Currently, the list of officially supported devices that can work with Huawei Health are as below. Devices not in the list are not yet fully tested by Huawei for their compatibility with Huawei Health, which you can still try your luck to find out if their can successfully paired with Huawei Health without much problem.

Huawei Health supported smart watches:
  • Huawei Watch GT 2 (both 46mm and 42mm)
  • Huawei Watch GT 2e
  • Huawei Watch GT (both 46mm and 42mm)
  • Huawei Watch 2
  • Huawei Porsche Design Watch
  • Huawei Fit
  • Honor MagicWatch 2
  • Honor Watch Magic/Dream

Huawei Health supported smart bands:
  • Huawei Band 4 / 4 Pro
  • Huawei Band 4e
  • Huawei Band 3 / 3 Pro
  • Huawei Bend 3e
  • Huawei Band 2 / 2 Pro
  • Huawei TalkBand B5 / B5 Lite
  • Huawei TalkBand B3
  • Huawei Color Band A2
  • Honor Band 5i
  • Honor Band 5 / 5 Sport
  • Honor Band 4 / 4 Running Edition
  • Honor Band 3

Huawei Health supported weighting scales:
  • Huawei Body Fat Scale
  • Honor Scale 2
  • Honor Smart Scale
  • PICOOC S1 Pro Body Fat Scale

Huawei Health supported heart rate monitors:
  • Jabra Sport Pulse Wireless Headphones
  • Suunto Smart Belt Heart Rate Strap
  • Polar H7 Heart Rate Chest Strap

Hint: Click on the "Older Posts" link to continue reading, or click here for a listing of all my past 3 months articles.