EA Sports Active

• Right up until Christmas, you can test out EA Sports Active in stores in San Francisco and Boston — EA Sports Active
• Walmart's Black Friday ad has surfaced — CrunchGear
• Firefox 3.6 Beta3 for Windows, Mac, and Linux users is now available to download — Lifehacker
• Hulu has just teamed up with EMI to offer music videos on its free video streaming site — The New York Times
• The Nokia N900 is now on sale in the US — CNET
• Find out how you can download videos to your iPhone — Switched

Whether we like it or not, the holidays are quickly approaching — which means it's time to get our gadget gift guides in gear! My Must Haves list for November certainly got the ball rolling, but you're probably wondering where to start when it comes to shopping for those "hard to buy for" people on your list? Well look no further, because starting today until Christmas, you'll find helpful gift guides on GeekSugar for everyone on your list. And who better to kick things off then the most important woman in our lives — our mothers!

With the success of EA Sports Active — the game I used for my 30 Day fitness challenge — EA is announcing a new EA Sports Active game called Sports Active More Workouts.

Coming November 17, the new game will feature 35 new exercises like water skiing and paddle surfing. It will also emphasize abdominal exercises including curl ups, crunches and punches.

I think the addition of more exercises is good, but I wish you could just download them rather than have to go out and buy the game separately.

I can hardly believe that it has already been an entire month since I started the 30 Day EA Sports Active Challenge. I'm sure for those of you who participated in the challenge, you can also vouch that the 30 days goes by fairly quickly. And because the game gives you two to three rest days a week, it's easy to add the workouts into your daily routine.

In terms of my overall results, I only lost about four pounds, but where I do see the results is in my muscles, which are a bit more toned and can actually handle some weight! Although Sports Active offers a nice cross-training program, if you're really trying to shed the pounds, I suggest pairing this game with another exercise program (say regular exercise classes, or cardio at the gym).

To find out what my pros and cons are about the game, just read more

As I near the homestretch of my EA Sports Active 30 Day Challenge, I am thoroughly impressed with how much muscle strength I've gained and how I feel generally healthier. After my issues with the Wii sensor and resistance bands last week, I decided to skip the bicep curls and upright rows since I couldn't seem to get my new resistance band to work with them (yes — even when I was going reallly slow and following the instructor!). Thankfully the game still gives me lots of upper-body workouts so I don't really notice that the other workouts are gone. I think I've lost around four pounds so far, but I'm not so concerned about the weight loss as I am about turning fat into muscle.

To find out what else happened during the challenge this week, just read more

It's hard to believe I'm already in the throws of week three of the EA Sports Active challenge. I learned a lot after last week's trials and tribulations, so I decided to step it up a bit this week.

I took to Target and purchased a fancy resistance band that included handles and all, and as backup, I also got a box of three bands offering different resistances. I got all excited to take my upper body exercises to the next level, but as soon as it got to bicep curls with upright rows, there was zero communication between the Wii and my movements. What had I done? I was still holding the Wiimote and nunchuck in the same position.

After many attempts and putting new batteries in the Wiimote (by this time I was halfway through my workout and was getting really frustrated), I decided to take the basic band I purchased and put it on the black handles which were included in the workout — so it looked exactly like the red one except with a stronger resistance band. Bingo, that seemed to work just fine. But now that I'm catching on to the exercises fairly quickly, I am easily irritated when the game tells me I'm moving too fast and it won't pick up a signal with my Wiimote. Has anyone else had this happen? The Wii sensor was on the top of my TV, so I even tried moving it down to see if that would help.

To keep reading about my experience with the Challenge this past week, just read more

My 30 Day EA Sports Active challenge continues, and for those of you who left comments and feedback about your own experience with the challenge, I must say, I am already feeling many of the same things!

In the beginning, I was really skeptical that this game could actually get me sweating and burn calories, but as each workout ups the calorie-burning level, you are guaranteed to be sweating within the first 10 minutes. And although this game isn't full of a ton of cardio (there are some running exercises which incorporate knee-ups and kick-ups), you'd be surprised how many calories you burn while working your muscle groups (those jumps in the inline skating exercise kill!). EA Sports Active really increases your strength and helps you build muscle — something I failed to include in my previous trips to the gym.

To keep reading about my experience this past week, just read more