Playing political games

GIZMO GALLERY

"The Political Machine" is a new strategy game from Ubisoft (www.ubisoft.com), which is cashing on the upcoming November elections.

You are the campaign manager for an US presidential candidate. Your job is to choose a political party, put together your dream ticket and go for the Oval Office!

The game is based on the real world of US politics and the player must go through fund raising, campaigning, building support and TV news shows and debates where he answers tough questions.

The Political Machine is both a single player game against the computer and a multiplayer game against other players on the internet at www.PoliticalMachine.com. You can play as Bush's manager or Kerry's manager or as the manager of any of the dozens of fictional or historical politicians (A JFK Roosevelt ticket can be created for instance.) Playing this game is being billed as a great way to develop an understanding of US politics.

Wearable GPS

The Garmin Foretrex 201 GPS Personal Navigator (www.garmin.com) is a wrist-watch sized and wrist-mounted GPS receiver. It's designed for outdoors and marine enthusiasts who need hands-free GPS, accurate to within three metres (with WAAS-enabling).

The 75-gram, waterproof unit has six buttons (GoTo, Page, Enter/Mark, Up, Down and Power) for easy operation. The internal lithium battery offers 15 hours between recharges.

The stopwatch feature marks the start of a race or journey, so you know exactly how long it took to get from A to B. Up to 20 routes can be manually programmed and stored with a backtrack feature.

So even if you're wandering around without knowing your starting point, you can always get back there, wherever it is.