LD Approved – Page 2 – LIVEdigitally

Video Recording on my iPhone… or very nearly (thank you 12seconds)

Posted on December 18, 2008 by David Speiser

Disclaimer: We know, love and work with the people from 12seconds. Impartiality is severely dented, if not discarded outright.

Today 12seconds.tv did a few cool things:

They’ve re-designed their website – cool new look and feel, with a strong focus on video consumption
They’ve concluded their invite-only Alpha phase and opened up in a public Beta where anyone can register and use the site
They’ve had their iPhone application approved and launched in the iTunes App Store (for $0.99)

I’m happy for their progress from Alpha to Beta, and I think the re-design looks great. But I’m most excited about the iPhone app. You all know (both of you) 😉 that I’m an iPhone user, and one of my few frustrations with the device has always been the lack of a video recorder. Apple steadfastly refuses to release one, and there’s no third-party video recording application available (unless you choose to jailbreak your phone). This annoys me.

12seconds did not manage to sneak a video recorder through Apple’s QA team. But they did create about the best possible workaround. App users will take 3 photos (or choose 3 from their picture library), record twelve seconds of audio, and then post their creation to their 12seconds account (unregistered folks can create an account on the fly, in their phone.) Somewhere in the cloud, the pics and audio are combined and then spit out as a twelve second video slideshow. Users can email a link to their video directly from their phone Each video has it’s own unique URL on 12seconds.tv, and can be emailed, embedded (as HTML) or downloaded onto your hard drive. Here’s a demo video on how to use the app.

iphone app for 12seconds.tv from Sol Lipman on Vimeo.

One thing I really like about this app is the story telling aspect. The series of pictures with audio narration really give you that James Earl Jones feeling of comfort. Also, if you flub the audio and need to re-record, you can do so as many times as you like. With traditional video, if you blow it, it’s blown. The moment has passed. Here’s one video I recorded with a trial version of the app.

Cold Cuts – Chinese Food Style on 12seconds.tv

The app is a first draft. It works, and it’s intuitive, but there are some features I’d like to see added, including wanting better flexibility in choosing photos and saving drafts. But on the whole I think the app is very usable. There’s just room to improve.

Kudos to the 12seconds team on a great launch and a cool app. This is the best solution to the video-recording conundrum that Apple’s created that I’ve seen yet.

MG Siegler at VentureBeat

Greg Kumparak at MobileCrunch

Rodney Rumford at FaceReviews

This post is also published on 1TO10REVIEWS.

Netflix on the new XBOX 360 Live – disappointing so far

Posted on November 23, 2008 by David Speiser

On a scale from 1 to 10, the Netflix / Xbox experience is slathered in weaksauce.

I have an Xbox 360. When I heard about the new Xbox Live experience (new UI, new architecture, more features, more customization, etc.) I thought it sounded really cool. I’ve always thought it was a neat product, but I also thought there was a better interactive experience waiting to be enjoyed, if only someone would come along and develop it. Last Thursday, November 20, 2008, that experience became available for everyone.

One of the features I was most interested in was the Netflix streaming directly to your Xbox 360. I believe that digital home media have a long way to go. Networked media PC’s are a pain to set up, streaming media servers even more so, and Apple TV (even with Apple’s vaunted user-experience) isn’t an elegant or simple solution. But I have an Xbox 360, a computer (for all intents and purposes,) already hooked up to my television and with an HDMI connection. Netflix streaming directly onto my TV? Sounds excellent.

I even resurrected a membership for this. I had Netflix a long time ago, and ended up canceling because I just didn’t get enough value from it. I get lots of movies from the Library (I know, laugh all you want, but’s it free) and I felt like I was always forgetting to return the Netflix discs and just throwing money away on the membership. So I canceled. But this Xbox partnership seemed like a good reason to renew the subscription, because of the ease, convneience, and my sheer exuberance at the prospect of streaming it right on to my Xbox. Then reality set in.

I just re-subscribed to Netflix, activated my account on the Xbox, and added (hang on) 39 movies to my queue. Thirty-nine movies. Of those, not one is available to stream the Xbox 360. Not one.

Now that, my friends, is weaksauce.

And before you retort smartly, let me say that this is not just a bunch of brand new, extra fun movies. Among others I have indies (Run, Fat Bot, Run – 2007), thrillers (Revolver – 2005), TV (How I Met Your Mother Season 1 – 2005), Action (Blade – 1998), Sci-Fi (Resident Evil: Extinction – 2007), and comedy (Forgetting Sarah Marshall – 2008) to name just a few. There’s a good blend, in my opinion, of older and newer, hotter and less-hot choices in my list. And none of them are available to stream. That’s not acceptable.

After searching diligently I did finally find one movie, National Treasure 2, that was available for streaming to Xbox Live, and I wasn’t wholly opposed to watching it. It worked flawlessly. I’ve never watched any of the National Treasure movies, but my wife convinced me that I might like them, so I gave it a shot. Truthfully, I enjoyed the movie. Low expectations help a lot, and the history is a lot of fun. But more importantly, the Netflix experience on the Xbox 360 was fantastic. Moments after adding the movie to my queue, the Xbox Live page displayed it as available. I asked to watch the movie, and in 15 seconds it was ready to go. The picture quality was excellent, and the controls all worked perfectly. I was REALLY satisfied with the experience of using Netflix. Unfortunately, there’s not much for me to watch.

Netflix and Xbox have bragged that there’s a library of 12,000 shows to choose from and stream to your Xbox 360. That’s not real helpful, if I don’t want to watch any of them. I am sadly unimpressed, and if I were forced to give this a numeric rating between 1 and 10, right now it would get a 4. I like the idea and the service worked well, but there’s no content I’m interested in seeing. No bueno.

Some Related Stories & Links:

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Update 11/30/08:

I’ve been thinking about this situation some more. Jivebotic and Wunder both left very good comments (on 1to10) about what movies are available, and the benefits of the Xbox / Netflix experience. I agree with both of them. The way I see it, there are two major problems:

1. There’s still not enough good content available on the Xbox. Jivebotic pointed out some good movies that I can watch, sure enough. But they’re still not the ones I want to watch. I don’t know why that rubs me the wrong way, but it does. Out of 40 or so movie titles that I want to watch, I should have been able to find a couple that were available. For me, there was not one.

2. Netflix needs to add some kind of serach and identification mechanism, and that right quick. Currently they do identify their “instant” titles, but there are 4 or 5 different “instant” mechanisms for streaming movies, and not all titles are available for all mechanisms. I need a way to search for Xbox-compatible films, they need to visibly tag those films with an Xbox logo, and they need to quickly add more titles if they want to keep my business.

This post is also available on 1to10reviews.

Sonos + Pandora = 42

Posted on October 28, 2008 by Jeremy Toeman

My insufficiently geeky readers probably won’t get the 42 reference, so I’ll assume you read this reference before continuing. Of all the convergence I’ve seen that bridge gadgets with Web services, I think the implementation of Pandora’s free Internet radio service onto the Sonos music system is probably the best. The single “snag” in the entire system is that you actually need to (1) have a Pandora account, and (2) own a Sonos. If you don’t, I recommend correcting the situation immediately.

In a nutshell, Pandora works by building “radio stations” based on artists and/or tracks you like. If you pick Frank Sinatra, boom, you have a Frank Sinatra Radio Station. Add other artists, and create your Smooth Crooners Radio Station. If you don’t get it yet, well, go to Pandora and set up an account, it is free after all. The super delicious part of the story is how well they integrated with Sonos.

On your Sonos, you simply need to add your Pandora username/password, then you have access to virtually all Pandora features. Key to it is how easy it is to use on the Sonos, including bookmarking content and creating new stations. One of the softkey (programmable) buttons is labeled “ratings”, the other “Pandora”.

Click “ratings” to rapidly Like, Dislike, or Not hear a song for a month. Perfectly logical, works just like Pandora on the Web does. This feature is one of the key parts to how Pandora works – while you can’t specifically pick songs to play, the collaborative filtering system (recommendations) works extremely well.

The “pandora” button allows you to add the given song or artist to your current radio station, or build a new station based on the song/artist. Again, this implementation is exactly how it should work. Within minutes I created five different stations, all in different genres, with practically no effort. You can similarly bookmark content to retrieve later at pandora.com.

I’ve ripped my 800+ CD collection into MP3. We have access to tons of other streaming Internet content. I can say without hesitation that 90% of my Sonos listening will now be over Pandora (and my new house has 7 Sonos zones planned). Amazing job to both companies. BTW, Sonos also introduced an iPhone app, but since I’m not an iPhone guy I’ll let the pro’s talk about how great that is instead…

Review of Suunto Core Wristop Computer

Posted on August 22, 2008 by David Speiser

I bought a Suunto Core watch, in orange. I like climbing, and being in the mountains, so a watch with an altimeter makes at least some sense, which helps me justify the purchase of this rather expensive watch wristop computer.

Suunto is probably best known for their dive computers, both wristop computers, and the kind that attach to a SCUBA diver’s regulator. However, they also make several lines of outdoor / mountain oriented wristop computers. And they have a long history of excellence in manufacturing compasses.

An outdoor, mountain-oriented watch / wristop computer should include a couple of important features:

It should tell time
Effective alarm(s)
Luminescence (push button, generally) for night time use
Altimeter (this tells your elevation)
Barometer (for monitoring changes in air pressure, a good signal of impending stormy weather)
Compass
And a bunch of other things like difference measurements, logbooks, “start from zero,” depth measurements (for when you go under water), rotating bezel, button lock, etc.

There’s a cool video that shows a bunch of the neater features. Check it out.

Truthfully, what initially caught my eye was the look and style of this watch. Many would call it garish. I call it me. I love the color orange, and I think the palette and style of the face itself is magnificent. My affection for the rubbery orange band ebbs and flows, but that’s easy to change. There’s a high-quality double hinge on both the top and bottom bands, which is an incredibly strong mechanism, and a good sign of quality.

If you’re not as into orange as I am, Suunto sells this watch in a number of different guises, both plainer and more grandiose than my selection. (See choices to the left.)

Aside from the aesthetics, this watch packs a lot of impressive features into a small package. Aside from telling time, my favorite feature is the altimeter. It’s necessary to calibrate it correctly; this can be accomplished either by knowing your current elevation and setting it accordingly, or by a trickier method involving the calibration of the barometer function (which is also very cool.) Truthfully, the manual on this sucker is extensive, and I have not quite waded through all of it yet. However, the watch, alarm, calendar, stopwatch, light, button lock, and basic altimeter have all fallen before my wily charms. I also had some help from my wife who is usually cleverer than me when it comes to gadgets, buttons, sequences, and other things requiring both patience and logic. Those are not my strong suits.

It’s fairly large compared to an average wrist watch, though not excessively so. It’s very comfortable, and not overly heavy in spite of its bulk. Sometimes if it slides forward and when I bend my wrist it gets in the way. Also, if I’m resting my hands on the edge of my laptop to type, the band can interfere with my personal ergonomics. Small price to pay for fortune and glory, but it’s an issue nonetheless. It’s also waterproof to 30 meters, which is not diving depth, but certainly has you covered for showers, swimming, or even most snorkeling. For more extensive water activities (like SCUBA) you might look at some of their other products.

This device is not cheap. The retail on the orange model is around $350. The least expensive Core model is $250 (in black and yellow.) You can purchase it through any number of online retailers, including Backountry.com. If you want to see one in person, REI carries them, and many high-end, well stocked outdoor retailers will also probably carry them.

If you’re looking for a distinctive looking and expensive wrist watch, or for an extremely feature-rich, mountain-focused wristop computer, this is an outstanding purchase. I highly reccomend, and if I were forced to give it a numeric rating I’d call it an 8 out of 10. I will update this review after my next big outdoor trip.

Here’s a video review of the Suunto Core in twelve seconds:

Suunto Core Wristop Computer on 12seconds.tv

This review is also posted on 1to10reviews.

Customers Speak, Netflix Listens, Everybody Wins

Posted on June 30, 2008 by Jeremy Toeman

I am a huge believer in the voice of the customer. When I was at Sling Media, Blake (CEO/cofounder) made it abundantly clear how important each and every Slingbox owner was, and we built both the marketing and customer service departments around that vision. When a user had a complaint, we listened and responded, and when they had a suggestion we took it and considered how to include it. This behavior is generally Not the way a public company reacts. Typically when a big company gets on the soapbox and preach from on high, we as customers have to take it. Our usual means of feedback or commentary was through our checkbooks.

When Netflix announced they were removing the profiles feature, many users (myself included) spoke, and spoke loudly. We didn’t have to unsubscribe right away, because we had a platform for being heard. Netflix’ blog allows for comments, and everyday people could blog, twitter, post upset messages to their Facebook walls. The question I wondered was: were they listening, or was the decision a foregone conclusion.

I read today that the profiles feature will not disappear the way of Kozmo this Sept 1. I applaud the company for having the confidence to overturn a “final” decision. Some will clearly yell on high about how “social media” made a change, which is neat. The real instrument of change is something as simple as creating a culture that is open to listening. The voices were always there anyway.

AMAZING Lego town at Maker Faire

Posted on May 3, 2008 by Jeremy Toeman

Good job Comcast!

Posted on April 9, 2008 by Jeremy Toeman

Turns out the speculation was true, you don’t have to be an a-lister to get attention from Comcast online. I must say, I’m impressed. I’ve never seen another company react this way before, and they deserve full praise for such actions. This is one of those stories that I will definitely be sure to echo in the future. Well done, no snarky or cynical remarks for you today!

Geeks Done Good!

Posted on December 29, 2007 by Jeremy Toeman

Warning: semi-preachy post. Do not read if in the mood for fluffy banter about some new Web service or gizmo.

We live in a very interesting time. Technology is enabling so many things in so many ways it is truly impossible to keep up with it all. There are more ways than ever for us to spend our money on things that are supposed to make us happy, in the virtual world or the physical one. Yet countless studies have shown that when measured, the impact on one’s happiness from buying things (cars, TVs, gadgets, etc) is extremely short-lived. Volunteering, on the other hand, is considered one of the top activities we can do to directly contribute to our happiness.

Today I was proud to see 25 Bay Area (and 1 from LA!) people show up at the San Francisco Food Bank to spend a few hours of their time volunteering. We organized two shifts, one at 9am, another at 12:30pm, and at each shift performed various activities to help the Food Bank with their food supply. The Food Bank is heavily dependent on volunteers, so this was a great way for us to get involved with an organization that has a direct impact on the community around us. I have pictures online here (more on Facebook), and Robert Scoble took some videos: quick one with me, and an interview with George from the Food Bank (parts one and two).

The morning shift was responsible for sorting recently deposited food from Safeway and individuals. We rummaged through 44,000 pounds (not a typo) of cans, bottles, boxes, and jars of food. All the food donated from Safeway was there because something was ‘wrong’ with it (dents, ripped box tops, etc). It was a bit of an odd feeling knowing I was handling items I’d never consider purchasing, yet would end up in homes where it is desperately needed. Thankfully recent policy changes allow Safeway to donate this food, as in prior years it all ended up in the landfills.

The afternoon group was packing up boxes of food that end up in homes where the only monthly income is social security. The average check is $1005, and the individual is not permitted to earn any money from pensions, 401k’s, or other programs, so they are clearly in serious need of help. For those who don’t think $1000/month is too bad, please bear in mind that in San Francisco, a 2 bedroom apartment easily rents for $2000+ per month. The group’s pace of sorting apple juice, dried milk, canned pork, and other rations into a box was assessed after 10 minutes, and a target for the day was set (as opposed to the morning shift of sorting utter chaos), which was met. Go team!

At a personal level, I’ve felt wonderful all day. Considering 25 people gave 3 hours of their days today (Mehrshad actually stayed through two full shifts), that means my real contribution was to generate 75 hours of volunteering. If you’ve ever doubted your ability to make a difference, think about how easy it can be. Now imagine each of these people put forth the same effort next year, and manage to bring along a couple of friends each. And so on, and so on. If you don’t know me well enough that you think I am bragging here, please know I’m not – I’m just genuinely excited to have the satisfaction of feeling I can make a difference. It’s all too easy for us to shrug our arms and put our heads in the sand. My head’s well out, and I’m excited about it.

I’ve gone ahead and registered GeeksDoingGood.com (and GeeksDoGood and GeeksGivingBack). I’d like to use it as a place to coordinate future events. Further, I’m hoping it becomes a collective communal effort. I figure if nothing else I can start a blog there, and maybe do a little (shudder) Twittering. Okay, probably not Twittering, but definitely a cool WordPress theme…If you have any interest in helping out in any way, please get in touch.

Lastly, I’d like to thank Andrew Kippen for organizing with the Food Bank, and I don’t have the full list of attendees just yet, but the ones I’m sure of by name include (in no particular order): Flickr‘s Maya Baratz, Wired‘s Megan McCarthy, eHomeUpgrade‘s Alexander Grundner, Robert Scoble, The Point‘s Jeremy Pepper, my mom (hi mom!), AdBrite’s Joel Sacks, Ilana Gauss, Josh Einhorn, Macrovision’s Ben Tan, Josh Lazar, Mark Trammell, Jason Toney, Mehrshad Mansouri (x2), Patrick Scoble, Phonescoop‘s Eric Lin, Engadget‘s Ryan Block, Mahalo‘s Veronica Belmont, Bryan Whalen, and E-storm‘s Daniel Riveong. I apologize for those I’ve left out, but I don’t have your info nearby, I’ll update this post when I get it. But thanks, thanks, thanks!

I guess the morals of today’s story are:

Yes, one person can effect change.
Sony’s Vaio VGN-SZ series laptops still suck (although I just upgraded mine to run XP, maybe that’ll de-paperweight it).
There are lots of needy people out there and it’s easy to help, we just have to make the time to do the helping.
We can all just sit on our collective butts and complain about the sorry state of affairs in our world, or we can try to make a difference. It’s a lot easier than I thought, and I plan to do a lot more of it in 2008. I hope someday you’ll join me… Imagine.

Beautiful Katamari: an addict in 20 minutes

Posted on October 18, 2007 by Jeremy Toeman

I first saw the Katamari game when a TechTV reporter put it “head to head” versus the Slingbox a few years ago. I didn’t quite understand the comparison, but the game looked silly, yet interesting.

Using the awesomeness that is Xbox360 Live with free game demos, I downloaded a preview of Beautiful Katamari two weeks ago. Despite the 3 minute time cap to the demo, I played it quite a few times, and my wife tried it too. She described it as “the stupidest game she’s ever seen. but a lot of fun!”

I bought it yesterday at Best Buy, and didn’t get a chance to play it until late at night. I was exhausted and ready for bed, but couldn’t possibly let my brand new game go unopened! So bleary-eyed I put it in, and played through a couple of levels and some online multiplayer games.

Awesome awesome awesome.

The multiplayer was especially fun, although we had some frequent bandwidth problems. I’d like to see a bit more detail on the bandwidth issues so I could understand exactly what the problem is (me or someone else). That is my single flaw with the game.

It’s fun. It’s silly. It’s family-safe, yet not too stupid that adults won’t enjoy. The Engrish is great (I have no idea if it’s intentional or not, but either way). The graphics are nice, not outstanding, but the gameplay is so superb it’s irrelevant.

The best part about the online multiplayer? Instead of losing to 12 year old kids who shoot me in the head while I’m still figuring out how to aim, I can lose to 5 year olds who can roll the ball real good.

I guarantee Amazon's MP3 store is important to you

Posted on September 26, 2007 by Jeremy Toeman

I’ll open by saying that despite switching to a Mac recently (because the Sony Vaio SZ-VGN460N is a terrible, terrible laptop) I’m not completely drinking the Steve Jobs Kool-Aid. I don’t like iTunes, and I don’t understand how more people aren’t crying foul at the Apple monopoly that is the iPod + iTunes music store. If it were any company other than Apple, the phrase monopoly would get used a heck of a lot more often. But, as a good friend of mine likes to say “the rules of physics do not apply to Steve Jobs.” He’s right.

So I like the Amazon MP3 store because it is open, not closed. Open content is good for consumers, period. You choose the software player on your computer, as opposed to it choosing for you. You choose the gadget to play it on, whether its your MP3 player or your cell phone. You burn it to your own custom mix CD, or you just listen to it on your PC.

Regardless of how much the current players (RIAA, music labels, Apple, etc) like or dislike this flexibility, this has been the de facto standard for music since the dawn of the cassette deck in the 70s. Let me repeat this, because it’s important: if you are 60 years old or younger, you were brought up in a world where purchasing music gave you rights to consume where, when, and how you chose.

My how this world has changed, and all thanks to the Internet, and for the worse. As consumers our rights are diminishing rapidly, all under the banner threat of “illegal downloading”. In fact the punitive damages surrounding “illegal downloading” are so severe you’d think Al Qaeda invented Napster and BitTorrent.

If I’ve piqued your curiosity, if any of this rings true and you want to learn more about how much the media industry has spent bribing congress to take away your rights, please pick up a copy of Lawrence Lessig’s Free Culture. If you are familiar with it, and want to use the most effective weapon you have (aka your checkbook), go buy a few MP3s from Amazon (and read this too). Showing monetary support for an open initiative is important. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but definitely in the long term.

EchoStar/DISH Networks is buying Sling Media!

Posted on September 24, 2007 by Jeremy Toeman

Holy crap, that’s all I can say. OK, not really, I can say a lot more. Mazel Tov. Congrats. Holy f*ing crap! Sling Media (my former employer) just got picked up for a cool $380 million (nice timeline here too). Holy crap! Sorry for all the pseudo-pottymouthedness, but come on, holy crap!

I think this was a pretty solid win-win relationship. Echostar is in heavy competition with DirecTV (and the cable co’s) today, and needs to start bolstering for the pretty much already-in-progress war with the Internets for TV. Sling brings not just the cool gadgets and yet-to-be-released Clip+Sling technology to the company, more importantly it brings knowhow.

Very few folks out there have really done anything “right” when it comes to PC and TV convergence. TiVo? Yes… Then there’s… uhm… let’s see… Apple? No. Microsoft? Kinda. ReplayTV? Who’zat? Seriously, you can count the successes in this space on a finger or two, and the failures can pile up enough terrible technology to fill HP’s garage! Sling has some knowhow, and Echostar can use it!

I am curious to see what becomes of the hardware side of the business. Will it be “Slingbox from Echostar?” Will we see a combined Dishplayer (the Echostar set-top-box with DVR features) with built-in Slinging? Or will they leave the unit independently running in San Mateo, building up a successful retail/hardware business? After all, they did eat Sony’s lunch when it came to the LocationFree TV (and the Vaio group is lucky they don’t ship laptops, since I could macramé a better one than the SZ-VGN460 – imagine if Sling built one!).

There’s a lot of options for these two companies and I’m excited to watch the future, knowing I was a part of the past. Now for some quick congrats to the whole team, and special thanks to Blake, Jason, and Bhupen for bringing me on board back in June ’04, as well as Rich for always having my back. Even more thanks and congrats to Brian J (best officemate ever), Alex, Raghu, Alexei (no more commuting!), John N, Dee, Cindy, George W (shh!), Brian M (finish your house already!), Vicky (90 hours per week is too many), Dave M (ykhik?), Jamie, Johnny G, Gregg (we’ll always have Orlando), Chris, Jeff (funny guy, no really!), Tami, Dave Z (sure, you’ll work for Brian, but not me?), Sharon (queen of beta), Teresa, Stephan, and every else I’m forgetting but have way too much adrenaline to focus right now.

Mazel Tov!

Community-Based Facebook Application Reviews at AppRate.com

Posted on July 17, 2007 by Jeremy Toeman

Last week I rolled up the sleeves, dusted off the old PHP memories, and got a little down and dirty to take a swing at a new site called AppRate.com. While watching people like Scoble, Mario Sundar, and Dave McClure add and remove about 40 applications per day (just kidding guys) on Facebook, I was getting curiouser and curiouser as to which were the “good” applications, versus the bad and the ugly. But Facebook’s “review” system is really just a meaningless comments board.

So I decided to build my own, and distribute the power back to the community. On our side, we add the applications to the site, throw in a screenshot, a little blurb, a link, and our rating. The rest is up to you. Voting is totally open with no registration needed – I’m hoping that empowering the community will overwhelm anyone’s urges to game the system. The site automatically calculates the top scoring and most voted-on items. In addition, anyone can easily add comments, although first-comments need moderation due to the power of the spambot world.

I’ve also taken a few extra moments to write a Facebook App that shows the Top 10 from AppRate. It’s not quite as versatile right now, I think it needs to link directly to the applications instead of the reviews, but that’s all I’ve figured out so far. Would love some feedback on this one, I’ve forgotten how much fun tinkering is.

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