LIVEdigitally

From My Mouth to Lenovo's Ears

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July 27, 2008.  I write a blog post outlining the details of how to properly design a laptop with two screens. The main concept:

Start by thinking of a thin-screened laptop like the (now former) Sony Vaio SZ series. Imagine on the side (left or right – you pick) a hinge, and on the other side a clasp. You release the clasp, then a second screen swivels out (via hinge) to appear next to your original screen. Attentive readers will realize at this moment that the screen is facing away from the user, which means the hinge needs a swivel as well (just like on a tablet PC). That’s the basics, but read on for it to all make a bit more sense. Also, I’m not stating that this configuration is for everyone, but, like a mini-notebook, it should appeal to… some?

December 18, 2008.  I read on Engadget and the Technologizer that Lenovo is planning a dual-screen laptop.  The main concept:

it looks like the dual-screen W700 is for real. Reportedly, the machine will feature a 17-inch WUXGA (1,920 x 1,200) primary display along with a 10.6-inch WXGA (1,280 x 768) secondary panel. Think SideShow, just jacked up on whatever Clemens and McGwire were using. The rest of the specifications are swell but expected, but the tidbits we’re really reaching for (price and availability, naturally) are nowhere to be found. Can you say “want.”?

I don’t suppose they’ll be sending me a royalty check any time soon, eh?

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

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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:

  1. They’ve re-designed their website – cool new look and feel, with a strong focus on video consumption
  2. They’ve concluded their invite-only Alpha phase and opened up in a public Beta where anyone can register and use the site
  3. 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.

Related Posts:

MG Siegler at VentureBeat

Greg Kumparak at MobileCrunch

Rodney Rumford at FaceReviews

This post is also published on 1TO10REVIEWS.

Avi Greengart’s 2008 Last Minute, Mostly Non-Obvious Holiday Gift Guide… For A Bad Economy

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At Current Analysis I head up a group focusing on mobile devices and how competitive they are in the market. As always, while vendors do send me review units, I do not profit from them (they are typically returned at the vendor’s expense), no money was paid for inclusion on the list, no Senate seats were offered as bribes, I don’t own stock in any of these companies, and Current Analysis clients did not receive any special treatment. Given the state of the economy, I’ve reigned in prices this year; suggestions start at $8.99 and nothing exceeds $200.

Accessories

In past years, I have recommended buying aftermarket headphones as a way to really improve your mobile music experience. This is still a great way to go, and I’m a big fan of almost anything from etymotic or Shure; this year I tested out Ultimate Ear’s Triple.fi 10’s ($400, but they sound great). However, if you’re on a budget this holiday season, there are two ways to improve the headphones you probably already have. The cheap earbuds that come with most MP3 players aren’t awful – Apple’s are pretty good for pack-ins – they just don’t physically stay in many people’s ears. Two companies have stepped up to solve this problem without breaking the bank:

  • Acoustibuds, $12.99,  look a bit strange and wrap around the end of the earbud and turn it into an in-ear speaker. The company claims that this will ensure that they don’t fall out (true) and improve the sound (not so much). Acoustibuds will work on any earbud, so if you’ve got a Sansa rather than an iPod, you’re still covered.
  • BudFits from Innovelis, $8.99 (an amazon exclusive for now) is the simplest solution you could possibly imagine: a silicone clef that attaches to the base of the earbud (Apple only, unfortunately) and wraps around your ear. They’re comfortable, inexpensive, and they work. Apple really ought to include these from the outset.

I’m on the road a lot, and when you’re in a hotel room you have one of two choices: bring speakers and get some work done, or turn on the TV and end up watching reruns of Entourage on HBO until 2 AM. I’ve tested a bunch of portable speaker systems, but most of them are either too bulky to pack ‘just in case’ or just plain sound awful. Nokia’s MD-4 strikes the perfect balance – tiny V-shaped speakers that run on AA batteries and can fill a hotel room with decent sound (face them towards the wall to improve the sound quality further). What’s more, they’ve been on the market a while, so they’re a bargain: Amazon has them marked down from $99 to $35.

One of my big complaints with the iPhone 3G is that it doesn’t have enough battery life for all the things I want to do with it. There are several aftermarket battery pack add-ons, but the one you want to give as a gift is the mophie juicepack. Oh, sure, at $99 it is expensive – other battery add-ons are half that – but the juicepack is the only one that looks and feels like something Apple might have designed themselves. The juicepack greatly extends the iPhone’s battery life (I didn’t do run-down tests, but I’d guess it triples the available power) as it cradles your iPhone like an iPhone case, so you can continue using the device.

With mandatory headset rules in more states, sales of Bluetooth headsets are rising. There’s an alternative designed just for the car – Blueooth speakerphones that slip onto your sun visor. I’ve tested a bunch of these. My favorite is Motorola’s T505, which not only has a speakerphone built in, but also an FM transmitter. If your phone has stereo Bluetooth (most musicphones and pretty much any smartphone other than the iPhone), you can transmit your music from the phone to the T505 to an empty station on your radio. When a call comes in, it switches to speakerphone, and then resumes the music when the call is over. Like all FM transmitters, it works better the farther away you are from crowded radio markets like New York, but the T505 will scan the airwaves for you, find an open frequency, and then tell you what number to tune your radio to. I tested a prototype earlier this year on an endless drive from New Jersey down to the Virginia-Kentucky border and was impressed. This is another product on a great sale at amazon, $65 (down from $139).

One of the problems with modern TV/home theater setups is that they are far too complicated: you really don’t want to spend a half hour with your babysitter explaining how to watch a movie. Logitech’s line of Harmony remote controls solves this problem. You set it up by answering questions online, and then it presents you with a list of Activities (“Watch TV,” “Play Wii,” etc.). It still isn’t perfect – the web-based setup interface still isn’t quite as idiot-proof as it ought to be – but the remotes themselves have gotten a lot better. The least expensive model (Harmony 510, currently just $49 at amazon) will get you the most bang for your buck.

If you have more to spend, I would skip the next step-up models and jump to the Harmony One ($179 at amazon). The One isn’t all that much different from Logitech’s other Harmony remotes in terms of specifications; the touchscreen is nicer and it can handle more devices, but that’s about it. What makes the Harmony One stand out is the attention paid to ergonomics – every button is shaped differently (so you can feel it without looking) and is placed just where your finger expects it to be. This is not something easy to describe, but pick one up and you’ll see. When I first laid hands on the Harmony One at a Logitech event, they offered to send me a review sample, but I pulled out my credit card instead (review samples have to go back, and this one was mine).

Budget iPod Alternatives

Apple continues to innovate in the iPhone and iPod touch lines, turning them into handheld computing platforms this year, but the regular iPod line got less dramatic improvements. The most popular model in the line, the iPod nano, costs $150 for an 8 GB model. The nano is still the most stylish MP3 player (it’s even prettier in your hand than in photos), it still syncs with Apple’s excellent iTunes software, and it still connects to the largest number of accessories. In short, if you can afford one, it’s worth the money. But what if you’re cheap?

SanDisk’s Sansa Fuze looks like SanDisk was trying to copy last year’s iPod squarish nano design, and it barely has any accessories to speak of. However, the Fuze is $50 less expensive than the nano, and the user interface on the Fuze is quite nice.

At lower price points, SanDisk’s Sansa Clip competes with Apple’s iPod shuffle; again, the Clip isn’t as stylish, but it’s still pretty darn small, it costs less than the shuffle (starting at just $35), and it includes a handy screen, which the iPod shuffle lacks, so you can see and choose what you are listening to.

Another iPod alternative I’m enjoying is the Slacker G2. This is tied to Slacker’s “personal radio” service, which is a cross between satellite radio, Rhapsody, and TiVo: first, you choose from various themed stations, and you can create your own by starting with an artist (say, the Delbert McClinton channel). Then you customize the stations over time by selecting “heart” or “ban” when you hear songs you’d like repeated or never wish to hear again. You can listen free (online on the web or on the player) with a few restrictions (there are a few commercials and you are limited to six “skip song” requests per hour) or pay $7.50 per month (which eliminates commercials, allows unlimited song skipping, and stores specific songs for on-demand playback). The G2 pushes the upper limit of this year’s list: $199 for a 4GB player, and that’s without the premium service – but even the free service is quite appealing.

Semi-Convergence Devices

Not everyone wants an iPhone or BlackBerry. There, I’ve said it. It also happens to be true – there are people out there who are not technophobes, yet they do not want multifunction devices. These people love their phones, but do not want to use them phones to surf the web or add applications or tie into corporate email systems. If one of these strange creatures is on your gift list, I have two recommendations:

  • If they don’t want a smartphone but do want to access personal email wherever they go, the Peek might be perfect. It’s a dedicated personal email device – that’s all it does. It looks like a ten year old BlackBerry that went through a deli slicer (it’s boxy but extremely thin), and it is straightforward to use – my mother would have no problem getting up to speed, and she is a bit of a technophobe. Peek is sold at Target stores for $79, and there is no contract, but there is a catch: monthly service is expensive ($20/month).
  • OK, I cheated: this one is a convergence device, combining a basic mobile phone with an extremely sophisticated camera (and WiFi plus a basic MP3 player, but let’s ignore that for now). Still, I think Motorola’s ZINE ZN5 will appeal primarily to the type of person who doesn’t want a smartphone, just a phone …but if you could combine a basic phone with a really good digital camera, that would be nice, too. The ZN5 is dead simple to use: to launch the camera, you slide down the lens cap. Then, most of the button labels disappear, leaving only camera-specific controls. Close the lens cap, and it’s a phone again. Now, the ZN5’s camera is still not as good as an inexpensive Canon digital camera with a glass lens, larger image sensor, and optical zoom. However, the ZN5 is always with you, and it takes pictures that easily cross the “good enough to print” threshold. Motorola co-branded the ZN5 with Kodak. It has a Xenon flash (like a regular digital camera), autofocus, and plenty of resolution should you want to make prints (5 megapixels). Most importantly, shutter lag is minimal, and shot-to-shot times are good. In fact, the ZN5’s imaging is every bit as good as the best high end convergence devices from Nokia and Samsung, but without the complexity and for only $99 with a 2 year contract at T-Mobile.

Services

Many of the items on any gadget list are likely to be purchased at amazon.com, and the amazon prime program ($79/year) is a gift that will keep giving impatient technology buyers all year long. With amazon prime, 2 day shipping is free for any item sold by amazon itself (as opposed to other merchants listing wares on amazon) and overnight shipping is just $3.99. This makes overnight shipping affordable for heavy items or just-in-time gadget purchases. I should note, however, that my wife uses amazon prime for something considerably less technical: just-in-time diapers to the door without having to drag them home from the store.

I have been recommending that Microsoft build file synchronization into Windows for several years now – it would make it a lot easier to have more than one Windows device if your data was automatically replicated across every machine you had – desktop, notebook, netbook, whatever. Well, they’ve done it. No, not Microsoft, but a small start-up, SugarSync, has designed a service to do three things: back up your data to the web, give you access to your data from any web browser, and replicate that data to any machine. There are a lot of services that do online backup and access, so where SugarSync is special is data replication. For example, you can start a Word document on your desktop, then run out to a meeting with your notebook. As long as both machines have Internet access, your half-finished document will be automatically saved on both machines and available for you to finish on the notebook. Plus, your files are always backed up somewhere, and you can access them from PC’s, Macs, and some smartphones. Sugarsync costs $25 a year for 10GB of storage.

In the past I’ve recommended gift subscriptions to Netflix, and that’s certainly one I’m happy to list again this year. I haven’t found too many movies on my list that are available for instant download, but hopefully that will change over the next year. In the meantime, Netflix is still the most convenient way to get movies on DVD or Blu-ray.

Another holdover from last year – and a perfect complement to Netflix movies – is gourmet popcorn. Dale and Thomas Popcorn offers various ridiculously delicious treats including all sorts of chocolate & popcorn combinations sure to cushion even the largest stock market drops (and expand your waistline in the process).  Everything is kosher, making it a good Chanukah gift, too.

2007 Gift Guide Follow Up

Last year I looked at the first Asus Eee PC, and it’s not surprising that netbooks are even hotter a year later. However, I have a nagging feeling that a lot of the netbooks being bought today are DrawerWare – in a year’s time, they’ll be in a drawer. The least expensive units are getting the most attention, and I find the small screens, Linux OS, 3 cell battery, and compressed keyboards to be overly limiting, even for taking notes, webmail, and Internet surfing.  Once you equip a netbook with a large screen/Windows/memory you’re really edging into cheap notebook territory. There is one area where netbooks make a lot of sense: the top end of the netbook pricing ladder is really interesting for road warriors. HP’s Mini 1000 (in the upcoming 6 cell/WWAN modem version) gives people who prize mobility pretty much everything they’d get in a $1500 – $2500 subnotebook from Fujitsu or Sony for a tiny fraction of the price. (The MacBook Air, which I’m also testing, is a bit of a different animal; it’s pricey and lacks ports, but it’s crazy thin and runs OS X.)

In last year’s Guide I noted that I wanted to recommend the SmartShopper shopping list gadget, but couldn’t. I still can’t wholeheartedly recommend it, but I must note that the company didn’t ask for it back, and a year later we’re still using it daily. When it ran out of thermal paper rolls, we opted to buy more rather than go back to pen and paper. It is still somewhat buggy, it eats batteries alive, and nobody actually needs one. Then again, it has come way down in price ($55 on amazon, down from $129 last year) and we do like it.

Happy Holidays,
Avi Greengart
Research Director, Mobile Devices
Current Analysis

Why Netflix is Kicking Blockbuster's e-Butt

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While I’ve always liked Netflix, I’ve remained dubious as to their potential for long term success.  Even when they hit their first million subscribers I thought little of it.  From my perspective, with tens of millions of customers, I figured sooner or later Blockbuster would just wipe out Netflix’s market share and opportunity. Instead, Netflix is en route to 9 million subscribers, and I’m more than a little surprised.  A conversation last night with a good friend of mine helped me understand why this is happening.  It’s a few parts Innovator’s Dilemma, and a few parts just plain bad business.  It’s a Cinderella story.  Outta nowhere.

In looking back on Blockbuster, their major rise to success happened during the VCR boom.  New movies were priced prohibitively for purchase ($80+ for a movie was not uncommon), so rentals dominated.  Blockbuster utterly mastered the art of creating a retail facility to rent video tapes.  In doing so, I believe they set the groundwork for their failure to convert to a successful Internet business.

First, it’s important to look at Blockbuster for what it truly is: an excellent Retail Business, whose product is Renting Movies.  Initially the format was VHS tapes, then as the shift to DVD occurred, the company adjusted.  If the next step was Blu-Ray (which it isn’t), and the primary market was consumers needing to rent content, Blockbuster would, hypothetically, be poised for a rosy future.  But that’s clearly not the case.

The DVD market saw a major change in pricing strategy for the content industry, with movies averaging $19.99-$24.99, and often much less.  This meant the movie rental business saw its first shift to the movie sales business.

Next up, due to the form factor, sending DVDs in the mail was a viable option, enabling Netflix to exist.  While Blockbuster has “toyed around” in the area of mailing DVDs, it’s a fundamentally different business than the Retail operations the company mastered.  In fact, when considering Netflix it’s very important to recognize their core strategy of distributing content based around personal recommendations.  Netflix is actually an excellent Movie Distribution Business, whose product was primarily Mailing DVDs.

As we look at the present, the world of Retail Businesses have seen enormous change, mostly due to e-commerce.  Additionally, the world of Movie Distribution Businesses have faced not just format changes, but also the massive decay of physical media formats.  Which is why Blockbuster has responded so poorly, and is so poorly poised for the future.  In a nutshell, Blockbuster isn’t about movies, it’s about retail movies, a world whose time has come.  Whereas Netflix isn’t about retails or formats, it’s about movies, and as the variables in that world change, Netflix can more easily change with them.

So even as we see Blockbuster dabble in the digital distribution world, the company needs a fundamental sea change in order to survive.  Interestingly, I don’t think there is anything that would prevent Blockbuster from digital success.  Per the NY Times article, there are plenty of other collaborative filtering tools to give them a great recommendations system.  They already have all the relationships and licenses in place in order to be able to offer literally identical services to Netflix.  They also have an incredibly strong brand to leverage, not to mention a massive customer database and distribution facility.

All they need to do is choose to operate a Movie Distribution Business, instead of running a Retail Business.  I think the simplest solution for the company is to create a spinoff entity, one not hampered by the P&L necessities of the retail organization.  This new entity should be run like a startup, be well funded, and given a couple of years to succeed.  They should have full access to the marketing vehicle that is Blockbuster, but none of the constraints or burdens of that organization.

Until then, I’ll enjoy getting my Netflix movies by mail.  I’ll watch it streaming on my Macbook, Xbox 360, or boxee setups.  If there’s a new release I can’t find within this setup, I’ll buy it through iTunes or through my HDTV cable box on demand system (something Comcast does extremely well, btw).  In the digital age, there can be many more than only one, but only time will tell if Blockbuster will be one of them.

Turn Your Dumbphone into a Smartphone. For Free.

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My phone doesn’t do email.

It doesn’t synch with my calendar.

I can’t browse the Web (well, technically it can, but it’s quite janky).

For crying out loud, I can’t even view or edit an Excel spreadsheet on it!

I have, sigh, a dumbphone.  And I love it.  I don’t have my office in my pocket. I don’t get interrupted during dinner with some email that didn’t need to get to me until the next day.  I can taxi from the runway to my gate without developing callouses on my thumbs.  I don’t have to worry about cutting and pasting anything. Are there times where I wish I had an iPhone or other boxy-but-good smartphone?  Sure.

It turns out there’s an amazing amount of things I can do with my phone without needing a lot more “smarts” in it.  Here’s a list of services I use to augment my phone’s experience.  The common theme, as you’ll quickly notice, is it’s all about SMS.

  • Check a flight status:  text to GOOGL (46645) the word “flight” followed by airline and flight number (e.g. “flight AC 759” or “flight UA 09”), you’ll get today’s flight time
  • Check a stock quote: GOOGL the word “stock” followed by ticker (e.g. “stock AAPL”)
  • Set/receive calendar events: if you use gcal you can configure it to text you alerts, and even set calendar appointments by text.  I use this all the time.
  • Send yourself a reminder: use kwiry‘s sms-based reminder/to-do system
  • Get a restaurant/business phone number: again, GOOGL and the name of the place (add the zip code for more accuracy).  this one isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty impressive
  • Research a question: try out chacha by texting your question to 242242, you’ll get a (typically) useful answer.  this is one of my favorite “tricks”, especially if I’m near a screen-pinching iPhone addict trying to find out the same information, but with oh so much more effort
  • Get a sports score: yup, GOOGL, the word “score” and your team (e.g. “score Canadiens”).
  • Lifecast: if you must, you must.  twitter, flickr, 12seconds, and other services all accept SMS and MMS messages.
  • Financial services: there are lots of new options that let you get financial updates via text, including mint.com and others
  • And the rest: Here’s a full list of all the things you can do with GOOGL. Pretty impressive, eh?

Here’s my “killer missing app” for a useful SMS service: LinkedIn/Plaxo lookups.  I have all my contacts organized – why can’t I just send in a text and get someone’s phone number or address without much effort?  Seems like a nobrainer.

So no, I won’t be shelling out a fistful of cash for any of this year’s crop of smartphones.  As I’ve said many times, all that “convenience” isn’t much of a benefit in context people becoming less detached from their real world experiences while being overly connected to their worklife.  If your name doesn’t rhyme with Harack Okama, odds are pretty good you aren’t getting recurring emails Saturday at 9pm while you’re at dinner that you *have* to check.  If you are, you need a better job.

Freestyle Audio SoundWave Review: Sink or Swim?

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Note: this is a guest-written review from Gitamba Saila-Ngita, I felt I didn’t spend enough time using MP3 players myself (not to mention any athletic activities whatsoever) to do an adequate review of the product.

These days the iPod™ is ubiquitous, even to the extent that the term “iPod” has become synonymous with MP3 Player but, it might not be the only game in town! There are other options–especially when you want to take your music to… the extreme!

I recently had the opportunity to check out Freestyle Audio’s SoundWave. Their slogan, “Take Your Music There”, which is coupled with lifestyle images of the outdoors, and instantly got me wondering whether this little 2″x3″ device could withstand the wear and tear of mother nature. The SoundWave comes with everything you need to get started right out of the box; such as waterproof headphones, a replacement belt clip, USB™ transfer cable, arm band, and my personal favorite, 50 free music downloads from the eMusic service (Apple please take note).

The device also comes with a slew of pre-installed tunes which allows you to take it for a spin as soon as you’re ready. It can hold 2GB of music via internal storage (no SD slots to expand it), and packs a substantial 18 hour playback time.

Getting started was fairly quick and rather painless.  After I set up my eMusic account, I uploaded some music onto the device before taking it out for a swim. One major difference between SoundWave and the iPod is that the SoundWave has no official software interface to your computer. This may not be a “make or break” deal for all MP3 Player users, but whether it be iTunes or Windows Media Player, it is definitely a convenience to have something that plays well with not only your music but your gadgets too.

Now before I go further, I’m always rather skeptical of any waterproofed electronic, ESPECIALLY something like an MP3 player.  Usually the “waterproofing” is inadequate, or you sacrifice size to put your device into something as massive as an Otterbox. In some cases you could be like our friend David Spieser who had his iPod™ Shuffle “Waterproofed” for a pretty penny.

Once in the water, things got kind of dicey. The SoundWave features six buttons, each with multiple functions that are displayed on simple and very tiny digital screen. I found the buttons very difficult to press. This may be partly due to the waterproofing, but it definitely made skipping through songs mid-swim a challenge. There is also a 5 second fade out when you skip, so trying to get to that next song to pump up your work out gets really annoying very quickly. I recommend setting up a play list, or enabling the shuffle function to make your work out as fluid as possible (On a side note, for some reason even with correct IDV3 tag encoding all my songs, no matter where I put them, displayed as gibberish – I am still trying to figure out why that happened). I swam for about an hour and also submerged the device up to its maximum depth of 10 feet.

To my surprise, the device showed absolutely no signs of taking on water. The waterproof earphones held up great too, although I wish they were slightly more comfortable (it uses a standard headphone jack so I imagine you could find something waterproof that suits you). The sound quality both under water and above is not bad. The little guy also supports the WOW audio codec and multiple types of EQ to help tailor the experience to your liking.

All around, the Free Style Audio’s SoundWave can take the beating you dish out while getting your sweat(or swim!) on. I recommend this to people who’ve been looking to bring a tough and rugged portable music player with them on active outings, where you won’t need to worry if it can take on a variety of physical and active elements.

Social Media meets Consumer Electronics at CES2009

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I try to keep the “plug Jeremy” posts to a minimum, but it’s my blog, and I can do what I want, right?

I’ve been invited to participate in Jeff Pulver’s exciting new event at CES 2009, called “Social Media Jungle.”  During the daylong session, a variety of very accomplished speakers will present on a variety of topics pertaining to social media and trends for 2009. In my case I’ll try to “bridge the gap” to address the CE industry.

Jeff’s description of the event:

“The Social Media Jungle at the 2009 International CES brings to light how the advent of social media is changing the way we work and live. Sessions include state-of-the-industry updates and a candid look at how social media disrupts the workplace by empowering companies to lower burn rates. Plus, learn how companies can motivate consumers through social media to drive product sales without increasing costs.”

Here’s the agenda:

8:30 – 9:00: Real-Time Social Networking
9:00 – 9:20: Welcome to the Jungle, Jeff Pulver
9:20 – 9:40: Navigating the Social Media Seas, Chris Brogan
9:40 – 10:00 – Industry Perspective & Update
10:00 – 10:20 – Industry Perspective & Update
10:20 – 10:40 – What to Look for in Social Media Platforms in 2009, Robert Scoble
10:40 – 11:00 – Return on Social Media Investment, Ben Grossman
11:00 – 11:20 – [ break ]
11:20 – 11:40 – Learn, Baby, Learn: Turn Your Social Media Addiction Into An Asset!, Jeffrey Sass
11:40 – 12:00 – Social Media Principles, Chris Heuer
12:00 – 12:20 – Naked PR: What Marketers Need to Know in the Age of Social Media, Susan Etlinger
12:30 – 2:00 [Lunch Break]
2:00 – 2:30 – How Reporters Have to Think of Themselves as an Entrepreneur and a Publisher Using their Company as a Platform, Daniel Honigman
2:30 – 2:50 – New Media Strategy in Challenging Times: Conquering the 3 Screen World: Dean Landsman and Howard Greenstein
2:50 – 3:10 – How Small Business can use Inbound Marketing/Social Media to Help Increase Their Business, Justin Levy
3:10 – 3:30 – The Convergence of CE and Social Media, Jeremy Toeman
3:30 – 3:50 – Managing Your Reputation While Being Genuine and Authentic Online, Dave Taylor
3:50 – 4:10 – How to Botch an Agency Briefing (No Matter How Cool You Think Your Product Is), David Berkowitz
4:10 – 4:20 [break]
4:20 – 4:40 – How Trust Drives Transactions During a Down Economy, Eric Weaver
4:40 – 5:00 – Leveraging Social Media for the Social Good, Rebecca Bollwitt
5:00 – 5:20 – How New Media is Changing the World, Brian Reich
5:20 – 5:40 – Transforming Unemployed BabyBoomers via Social Media, Carlos Hernandez
5:40 – 5:45 – Wrap up

I’ll be talking about how “social media” is infiltrating consumer electronics devices.  There are already a handful of products on the market or coming to the market with built-in social services.  The future of devices is clearly all around connectivity, and the interesting phase will be understanding how we get from today (mostly disconnected islands of functionality) to tomorrow (intelligent data sharing between devices and Internet services).

Registration costs: US$ 295 / 395 (Social Media Jungle page on the CES website and Facebook page).

A Waterproof iPod Shuffle in Review

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A while back, when I first saw Steve Jobs announce the new version of the iPod shuffle, with integrated clip and super-small form factor, I was excited.  I exercise a lot, mostly running, biking and swimming.  Music (or “books on tape”) makes the whole experience a lot more tolerable, and the iPod shuffle with its light weight and built-in clip is a perfect companion.

For running and biking, the shuffle is brilliant, and I use it every day.  Every day.  However, I’ve been swimming a lot more lately, and most electronics don’t do well in water, chlorinated or otherwise.  And I’ll tell you something else.  Swimming laps is boring.  Really boring.  I find it slow, tedious, dull, and insipid.  I like the feeling of endorphin release, and the positive benefits of the exercise, but man swimming laps is uninspiring.

Enter Swimman:

Swimman.com is a service that will waterproof the iPod shuffle.  You can buy the iPod through them, or purchase it directly and send it to them.  The waterproofing treatment takes about one week, and then you’re ready to go.  They also sell waterproof headphones (which I bought) to use while swimming.

Here are the basics:

  • They waterproof the shuffle
  • The On/Off slider and the Shuffle/Continuous play slider are both locked in place
  • The buttons become much stiffer

Otherwise it works the same as before.  If you want to shuffle your music you can set your playlist in iTunes to shuffle.  Once you get your device, you’ll want to clip your headphones and the shuffle to the headband, strap the excess cord under the headband, and then you’re ready to swim.

Swimman offers a number of packages to choose from, including just the shuffle itself, the headphones and the shuffle as a combo package, etc.  I went with package E, along with a pair of swimman headphones.  The waterproofing treatment is $100 plus $15 for shipping and handling.  The headphones are another $100.  And the 2GB shuffle is about $70.  So all told I’m down almost $300 for the luxury of waterproof tunes while lap swimming.

I’ve now used the waterproofed shuffle a total of 8 times.  I am stoked.  I switch back and forth between music and books on tape (nothing gets you pumped up like Joe Mantegna reading the Godfather.)  But I find that I can now swim longer and with less impatience.  Here are some pics of the shuffle in situ – (it looks just like any other):

On the whole I think this is awesome.  It ain’t cheap, so if you’re short of cash you might need to look at cheaper options.  But all of those options are considerably bulkier, heavier, and/or less convenient than the Swimman waterproofing treatment for the shuffle.

If I were forced to give the Swimman waterproofing system a numeric rating between 1 and 10, I’d give it an 8.  It would probably be a 9 or 10 if the price wasn’t so dang high.

This post is also available on 1TO10REVIEWS.

Some other related posts:

Engadget

12 Reasons why CES 2009 will be Awesome/Lame

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IMG_2296 ces unveiledThe annual Consumer Electronics Show is coming up.  I’ll probably add some new tips to my annual CES Tips list, but ultimately there’s a lot of same-old, same-old going on.  Which, to people like me, is great.  To a lot of people, it’s awful.  I think the show could use some change (this year’s I-Stage event was definitely a step in the right direction), and I’ll post on that soon enough.  But for those of you debating attending, here are 6 reasons why CES is Awesome, and 6 reasons why CES is Lame.

The Awesome List

  1. The CrazyNation Pavillions.  Located every year in the Sands hotel, many countries purchase booths for local vendors to show up with their wares.  Invariably these booths have some of the IMG_2698 Chinese GPS OEM companyweirdest hybrid gadgets you’ll ever see, most of which will never, ever come to market, anywhere.  But it’s “Days of Thunder” bad, in other words you hate it til you get sucked into it, because after all, it’s pure entertainment.
  2. Vegas. Anything more than 3 days in Vegas is too long, but if 2/3 of your time is spent at a big gadget show, that only really leaves ~1 day there.  Which is perfect. And honestly, where else could they possibly put a show like this?
  3. Something New and Exciting. There’s always the chance for something new and fun at CES.  I know already of two gadgets that will debut there, both of which are interesting and worth checking out.  While the recent trends have shifted to independent launch events, I think this might be the perfect year to launch at CES.
  4. Peter arrives at the boothThe Innovations Zone. Much like the International Zones above, the Innovations Pods (also in the Sands hotel) are a way for startups to bring their gadgets to the world for the right price.  Keep in mind both Sling Media and Bug Labs first attended CES in the Innovations Pods (yup, I’m biased).  Don’t forget – this year there are two Innovation Pods areas in the Sands, so make sure you get to both!
  5. Really Really Big Stuff.  Huge.  Just because nobody will ever buy a One-Hundred-And-Six-Inch Plasma doesn’t mean we don’t want to see it!  Or $150,000 projectors.  Or big crazy gaming rigs.  It would be like going to a car show and not seeing Ferraris and Maybachs…
  6. Cheap Hotel Rooms.  While I don’t agree with my friend Dan that CES will be a “dud”, there are definitely more hotel rooms available than in prior years.  Which also means shorter taxi lines.  No matter what, for those of us who do go, it’s a win.

The Lame List

  1. It’s still in early January.  This is my 10th CES, of which only 3 did not have me there as a demonstrator (this year included).  Which means for 7 of the past 10 years, my December is generally spent planning and executing on CES.  This, in a word, sucks.
  2. Hooligans.  Consider the above comment.  Now pretend you work for a big firm that spends hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars on the show every year.  Now pretend you are doing demos for 8 hours a day with inadequate sleep.  Now pretend some young whippersnapper comes along and screws with your demo.  Funny (I guess) to anyone but the demoer, but just an unpleasant thing to do to someone.
  3. IMG_2775 alcohol tester mp3 playerNothing New and Exciting.  While I have hopes for Something New and Exciting, the reality is there won’t be more than a handful of standout new products at the show.  Which means literally thousands of gadgets you’ve seen before.
  4. Apple Doesn’t Want to Share With the Other Kids. Of all computer and consumer electronics companies, Apple unquestionably produces the most intrigue around new products.  Considering they make the #1 selling MP3 player and also the current king of the hill iPhone, they’d fit quite well at CES.  But they don’t come, and I think it’s a shame.  Granted they have little to actually gain (considering they make great products, have all the PR they need, and own their own retail channel), but it would be nice to see them participate in such an industry-defining event.
  5. The CES Flu.  It comes every year, it’s unpreventable, and unstoppable.
  6. It’s Too Damned Big.  When the show expanded to the South Hall, we all thought it was too big.  Expansion to the Sands helped CES as much as teams in Phoenix, Raleigh, and Tampa Bay helped hockey.

See y’all in Vegas!

Blackberry's Imperfect Storm

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I had some time to play with the BlackBerry Storm last week, and I’m surprised how much I disliked it.  I feel it was a complete misstep on the part of RIM, and is indicative of the problems of handset manufacturers short-sighted thinking as they compete with the iPhone.

Competing with the iPhone is like competing with CSI
CSI is one of the top broadcast TV shows every week.  Millions of people tune in to watch a fairly vapid crime drama show with cool lighting effects and gruesome murder scenes. Many millions of people.  So if you are a clever TV exec, and you want to compete in the same timeslot, do you (a) create an equally vapid crime drama show with more cool lighting and gruesomer murders, (b) create a completely different show, such as a romance, comedy, reality, hospital, etc, or (c) offer alternating reruns of Matlock and Baywatch? As tempting as (c) might be, the answer is (b) – they call it cross- or counter-programming.

The World’s First Touchscreen Blackberry?
This is the main marketing campaign around the product (don’t ask me why).  The commercials (much like the gPhone commercials) are blatant ripoffs of the iPhone commercials, and they shouldn’t be.  This is the core problem of the whole device – it’s not an iPhone, and more to the point it shouldn’t be an iPhone.  Instead of building a great next-gen BlackBerry (like they did with the Curve, Pearl, Bold), they made a less functional product by trying to duplicate the core strengths of another product.  In other words, they are airing CSI: Indianapolis when they should be showing Reality Stars Paintball on Ice.

All CrackBerries need a keyboard
The BlackBerry is beloved because… it integrates perfectly into Exchange/Outlook/Corporate email environments and it is a phenomenal mobile email device.  IT administrators love it as do the end-user who can easily write emails while attending meetings, at family events, on the tarmac, dinner parties, and even while driving. The product experience is heavily tied into the keyboard, one could even consider it the signature piece of the device.  A BlackBerry without a keyboard can’t possibly (and, to the point, doesn’t) replicate the same “BlackBerry Experience”.

The Missed Opportunity
The “correct” touchscreen BlackBerry would have a physical keyboard as well.  Seems like an obvious, yet somehow missed move by the company.  Touchscreen keyboards can’t replace the physical one, and just dabbling touch-UI features onto the rest of the BlackBerry experience makes for a wholly unsatisfactory device.  Instead, the company should’ve kept the form factor of the present-day device, but made the screen touch-enabled.  Best of both worlds, satisfies the email-craving workaholic as well as the fun-having gadget owner.

Instead, the BlackBerry Storm might just be the mullet of phones.  It’s probably the best “other” touchscreen phone on the market (so far), but that’s just not good enough.  There are plenty of ways to compete with the iPhone, and I’m dissappointed at the lack of originality and creative thinking displayed by other cell phone manufacturers.  Something tells me the best competition will come out of left field, the way Asus first innovated with their eeePC.  I hope the clever product people at RIM who’s ideas got shot down to make the Storm can bring out the concepts they really wanted to ship (and I’m just going out on a limb with that – despite being Canadian I have no special insight into their product roadmap).

2008 Holiday Gift Guide (part 1)

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Grinch or no grinch, tis the season to be shopping.  In some sectors, the next 30 days represent more sales than the entire rest of the year combined.  I’ve decided to put together the first of at least one posts on what stuff I’d recommend buying this year (although the best recommendation I could possibly make is donating gift money to charity instead of buying more stuff we don’t actually need). I’ll give a major disclaimer by saying some of the products here I have a personal affiliation with (which shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, as I tend to get involved with things I like).

Most Versatile Gift:  Flip MinoHD ($229 on Amazon).
With the massive surge in personal video creation and HDTV, having an inexpensive, reliable, easy-to-use personal HD recorder just makes sense.  The Flip is a great product, works exactly as advertised, and is probably new to most people you’d buy it for (here’s a hint: if the recipient sends you a lot of HD videos already, don’t buy this for them).  You can also customize it with your own picture/design!

Most Practical Gift: External USB hard drive (numerous options).
With every passing year your likelihood of losing data to a hard drive crash increases.  If you know anyone who is not doing regular backups, shell out $99 (or less) and fix that problem.  Backup ain’t exciting, but losing data is just dumb.

For a Music-Lover: TuneUp Media for iTunes ($19.95)
Anyone who spends hours making playlists or using their iPhone at the gym, on the bus, etc, has dealt with the issue of missing or incorrect song information.  TuneUp fixes it, pure and simple.  Note: I have a professional relationship with TuneUp.

Simple Sleek, Sexy Storage is a Smart Stocking Stuffer: SuperTalent Pico USB Flash Drives (more info here)
Yeah, it’s hard to make a flash drive “sexy” but this as close as they come (plus check out that awesome alliteration!).  Check it out in 12 seconds:


SuperTalent 8GB Pico USB Drive on 12seconds.tv

For Your Programmer Friend: Bug Labs’ BUGbundle ($629)
If you have someone in your life who spends their days (and probably nights) coding, introduce them to the BUG.  Think of it as a Heathkit on Steroids (maybe Congress should investigate that one?).  Note: I have a professional relationship with Bug Labs.

For anyone living in a disaster-prone region: Medis Powerpack ($33.95 – you may need to buy more tips)
This is a fuel cell system good for charging your cell phone.  My wife and I have one in our emergency kit, and it seems like something virtually everyone should have available in times of need.  Here’s a quick video intro to it:


Testing the Medis 24-7 Power Pack on 12seconds.tv

For those of us exhausted by acting as tech support for our parents: Macbooks or Mac Minis (good Black Friday item)
I’ve lost almost 2 hours of my life trying to get my dad on Skype with his webcam.  My mom still has issues with simple photo sharing.  I’m pretty sure that if I were to add up my billable rate against the time I’ve spent debugging stupid technology issues that are all related to driver issues, I could’ve bought them both Macs and still showed a profit on it.

For a Gamer: Astro Gaming A40 Headset ($199)
When I was a teenager, my mom bought me Reebok Pump shoes to help me get better at basketball.  Needless to say, it was a poor investment.  With more and more video gamers turning their hobbies into potential careers, there’s actually some equipment that could help make the difference.  These headphones are crazy good, and have a lot of extra features for those who taking their gaming seriously.

For an Internet Video Maniac: Boxee on AppleTV ($250)
boxee.tv is a “social” media center (imagine Windows Media Center meets Facebook, only with less throwing sheep).  AppleTV is an underperforming media center device that hooks up to your HDTV.  boxee.tv + AppleTV is pure joy, but requires a fairly complex hack.  Not anymore, these guys’ll do it for you, and just send you a preconfigured unit.  Note: I have a professional relationship with boxee.tv (and I can get you invites).

Weirdest Gadget I can find that someone might actually like: Orbitsound T3 (not sure if they ship to US directly)
The company calls it a Mobile Stereo Speaker, I think it’s the modern boombox (notebuying something someone already has.  Happy shopping, and don’t forget to check out the sales this Friday!