You may have noticed (or probably not) that I have an obsession with data, with data backup, and with storage.  We ran an entire month of posts all focused on data backup.  Anyone who’s lost data before tends to have this kind of an obsession.

I’ve used external HDDs, and set up RAID systems in my PC, but I’ve never found a perfect solution.  Maybe perfection doesn’t really exist in data backup.  But the Drobo FS is pretty freaking awesome.

I’ll backup a second.  I use multiple external HDD’s for various purposes.  I have one for Time Machine, one that’s plugged into my Xbox 360 for watching local media, and one that’s plugged into my Pogoplug for easy backup and easy sharing of media.  It all works well, but it also all requires a lot of manual management and work.  The drive that’s plugged into my Pogoplug has been clicking and that’s ominous – usually means an impending mechanical failure. I live in dread.

As I mentioned, I did have a RAID 1 set up on my PC, but the RAID broke when I upgraded to Windows 7, and I haven’t wanted to go through the hassle of fixing, re-formatting, or updating my motherboard BIOS. If all of that sounds incomprehensible, you’re not alone.

I’ve had my eye on a Drobo for a long time.  For the uninitiated, Drobo is a type of external storage solution for consumers, semi-pros, and commercial data backup.  The name comes from Data Robot. I’ve hemmed and hawed for a long time, because these are not cheap devices.  Costco finally got a good deal for the Drobo FS (my preferred model) with 3 1TB HDD’s for $799.  It’s a good price, and includes the Costco guarantee, so I decided to pull the trigger.  I’m only bummed I waited this long.  Couple of benefits to the Drobo FS:

• Holds up to 5 internal Sata Drives  (super easy, just plug them in, no cables or plugs)
• Drives are hot-swappable (if you run out of capacity and want to put in larger drives, or if a drive goes bad, you can just yank out the bad / smallest drive and plug in a new one)
• Data is striped across multiple drives (if a drive goes bad, you don’t lose any data. It’s backed up across the other drives)
• It’s future-proof (you never need to run out of capacity.  When you fill up your drives, you simply buy bigger ones and replace the smaller ones.  The investment doesn’t go bad or get filled up.)
• Networked solution (you can move the data onto Drobo via your local network. Also possible to stream to various devices.  More on this in a later post.)
• Can be used for Time Machine (in Drobo you can set up multiple locations that you can label and designate for a specific purpose – these are called “shares”.  You can create a share specifically for Time Machine if you like, or to hold all your movies, or just to hold all the data on a given machine, etc.)

What I like most about Drobo is that it’s available on my network, and that it offers a redundant solution for storage.  If a drive goes bad (and all mechanical devices, including HDDs, will eventually go bad) you can pull it out and replace it.  When you run out of space, you can go to Fry’s and upgrade capacity with whatever the new price point drives are available.

I sleep a little better knowing that I have a storage robot minding my data, keeping it safe and redundantly backed up.  It was spendy, but I’m glad I made the investment.  The loss of family photos, or just the countless hours I’ve spent ripping my movie collection would be catastrophic.  This is good insurance.

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It’s awesome for playing music, reading eBooks, and watching movies – the Netflix app rocks if you already have an account.  But still, is all that worth the six hundo? Probably.

But, just in case you needed one more reason to own an iPad, see the video below.

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This is our 5th CES in a row, and it’s our annual tradition to drive.  We stopped for some lunch and Sol lost his phone, which is normally a panic-inducing nightmare of an experience.  But Sol stayed pretty zen about it (he’s in a good place right now.)  As it turned it out, it wasn’t really lost, and because I’m a genius we found it in about 20 minutes. But by then the Nexus One was ordered, and it only seems right to have one. After all, we’re at CES and we love shiny new phones the way little kids love puppies, or the way gravediggers like a good exhumation.

Below is the video of our unboxing. Ours is non-exclusive, non-exhaustive, and only mildly interesting. You can find much more professional (and informative) unboxings on Into Mobile, on Engadget, and on Ubergizmo (among others.) But Sol is better looking that anyone at those other pubs, so we’ll add ours to the mix anyway.

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We got a dog recently, and adorable Golden Retriever puppy we’ve named Cash. He’s a part of this family, and 100% awesome.  But he’s got a weak tummy (or worms) and he’s lost control of himself a couple of times, both at the office and at home in our bedroom.  Cross my fingers, we’ve so far avoided any squishy toes (thanks to Ron H. for that lovely and descriptive term.)

In deference to those incidents, and in the interest of a clean home and good relations with my co-workers, we decided to get some help with cleaning up aging diarrhea stains.  Enter the Bissell 1200A Spot Bot Pet – a portable, spot cleaning vacuum.  This sucker uses water and cleaning solutions to pull out aging (and gross) stains better than I could ever hope to with a spray bottle and a rag. We used it on three spots so far and the thing seems to be pretty darn effective.  The reviews on Amazon are pretty compelling as well.

The thing is pretty brain-dead simple to use too.   Fill up the reservoir with cleaning solution and water, place over the stain in question, plug it in, and hit “go.”  ”Go” = one of two choices, either a “fresh stain” setting that runs for 3 minutes, or a “set stains” setting that runs for 6.  I opted for the 6 minute clean.

And it works.  At $130 it isn’t super cheap, but not excessively expensive either, especially compared with a couple of visits by Stanley Steamer. Of course, I need to keep buying cleaning fluid too, but hey, Bissell’s gotta eat too.  And this vacuum is reassuringly heavy and solid – doesn’t feel like a cheap piece o’ crap.  And it’s kind of fun to watch it washing, rinsing, gurgling and scrubbing away in the magic viewing window.

Seriously, if you have (or anticipate acquiring) a number of small, contained stains on the carpet, this thing might be a darn handy tool to have around.  Here’s a video of the Spot Bot Pet in action at the office, working on week-old diarrhea stains:

Poop Be Gone. on 12seconds.tv

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The Best Buy Kiosk is a great idea.  People like to make awesome, spur of the moment gadget and electronics purchases.  Those not least when traveling and on vacation.  Doubtless Japan has been doing this for many years.  Damn they’re on the ball.

Essentially (in case you live in 29 Palms, CA and you’ve never seen one) these kiosks are like a self-serve gizmo vending machine.  iPods, camcorders, headphones, and other fun items are ready to hand for spontaneous shopper.   They are un-manned, which is obviously a huge costs savings in labor.  Right up until Windows goes into a tail-spin spiral of death, and/or DELL chokes on the BIOS screen.

At the airport I ran into a Best Buy Kiosk that was in excessive FAIL mode.  On a scale of 1to10, this scores a 1 on the “success” meter.  (It looked like this for at least 25 minutes, FYI.)

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That might be a little confusing – let me back up.  I own an XBOX 360.  In my opinion, it’s one of (if not the) very best home media devices ever made.  I enjoy playing video games, but the XBOX Live has a lot of cool functions, including the very best implementation of Netflix I’ve ever see (blows the TIVO interface out of the water.)  And one of the other things it lets you do is plug in external media.

Basically, here’s the deal.  I rip all of my movies and TV series (from The Big Lebowski to Entourage) into digital files, generally MPEG 4 files (either .MP4 to .M4V) with AAC audio encoding.  To do this I use either DVD Fab Platinum (a paid software available only for PC) or Handbrake (a free software that works best on the Mac, though it does have a PC version.) I then store these files in multiple locations (a future post on redundancy will elaborate on this point.)  One of those locations is a Maxtor OneTouch HDD (pictured right) – I bought a 750 GB drive at Costco a while back.  I transfer ripped movies and shows, and plug it into my XBOX.  This gives me a backup of those files, and a medium to deliver them to my big screen.  The files, ripped into 720p quality, play beautifully on my plasma.  I have a large library of content, accessible through an awesome UI, and totally independent of things like an Internet connection or a solid WiFi signal.

Don’t get me wrong.  I still watch DVDs.  And I still stream shows through Netflix (30 Rock in HD is awesome.)  But I am a hoarder (OK not that bad), and I like having the files themselves, locally, and the XBOX is perfect delivery device for watching those local shows.  Now I can see each and every episode of Arrested Development as often as I like, on the big screen, right off my HDD.  That makes me happy.  10 happy.

I’m a big fan of using an external HDD as both a storage device and a delivery mechanism.  You’ll need to rip your DVD collection, but it’s satisfying to have it at your fingertips and not have to fuddle with disks.  Yeah, I said fuddle.  Sue me.

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I’m a strong believer in the KISS principal: keep it simple, stupid. There’s lots of complex and confusing ways to backup your data, including a Network-attached storage (NAS) box, a redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID), and beyond.  The deeper you dig into these solutions, the more complex they become. Do you want a RAID 0, a RAID 1, a RAID 10…? Do you want to mirror your drives, or stripe them? Does any of this make sense?

If you’re like 95% of the world, the answer is no, it does not make sense.  It is most certainly not simple.  Well, you know what is simple?  An external hard drive.  That’s what.

An external hard drive is precisely what it sounds like.  It’s a hard disk drive (HDD) that sits outside your computer case.  Generally they have a plastic or metal enclosure, and connect to your computer via USB cable (or sometime Firewire.)  Larger capacity HDD’s will generally also have a power source.  Smaller capacity (under 250 GB) can frequently run off power drawn from the USB port.  Many different storage and CE (consumer electronics) companies make these drives, including Seagate, Western Digital, HItachi, Buffalo, and Simple Tech and many others.

The beauty of the external HDD is the guiding light behind the title of this post.  Its simplicity.  You plug the drive into your computer, and boom another hard drive appears on your desktop.  You can drag files onto it, or drag them off.  That’s it.  If you have a bunch of photos, music, movie files, or work documents you can make a quick, simple backup of all that data with just a click and a drag.  You can get a high quality drive for around (or under) $100 depending on the features you’re looking for and the capacity you need.

I have several of these devices that I use for a variety of purposes – I will touch on those here, and may expand upon them in future posts.  One drive that I use specifically for backup is the FreeAgent XTreme from Seagate. It has both USB and Firewire ports for connecting to your PC or Mac, and a separate power supply.  The Freeagents are (in my opinion) some of the best looking drives on the market, which makes some level of difference if you’re keeping it on your desk all the time.  It looks like a neat gizmo with artistic flair, rather than a janky box.  I have an Extreme in 1 TB capacity, and I use it to backup my data on a regular basis.  Most storage companies offer a software suite to do “automatic backups” which sync your data and update the external drive with only new files, or files that have changed.  This can be really handy, and Seagate’s works as advertised.  The other option is to manually drag over new files from time to time, or to overwrite old files by simply dragging the whole folder (with new additions) over to the external.  Salt to taste.

Personally, I do not backup every file, only those that are most important to me.  This includes some older documents, my photos, my music, and my movies.  And my books.  That’s right, I listen to audio books, ripped from CD into MP3 format.  Running sprints or swimming to the spoken word is good for you.

I also have a Maxtor 750 GB external HDD.  This one is connected to my XBOX 360.  I will elaborate on this in a separate post.  Lastly, I have a Seagate Freeagent Desk which I use with my Mac.  Again, watch for an upcoming post for more details.

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On a scale of 1 to 10, more people should really be backing up their hard drives.

You know you should.  We all know we should, but most of us rarely do.  If you go into a room of 10 people and ask: “Do any of you back up your hard drives?”, usually only 2 or 3 people will raise their hands.  If you ask a followup question: “Have any of you ever lost data or had a catastrophic hard drive failure?”  I’ll lay down a bet that the same 2-3 people raise their hands.  My friend Jeremy likes to say that “people don’t like to think about loss – it’s depressing, and our minds just don’t want to go that direction.”  I agree.  Most of the time it takes a severe loss of data to make someone a true believer when it comes to data backup and redundancy.

To fight that apathy, I am making September “Back It Up” month on 1to10reviews.  This month’s posts will all be related to storage solutions, data backup, and other related topics.  This will cover the gamut from:

- cloud-based storage solutions like Box.net

-to external HDD (Hard Disk Drives) from companies like Seagate and Maxtor

- and heavy-duty solutions like RAID, NAS (network attached storage) boxes and DROBO

Many people in September will be thinking about back to school.  Folks in Quahog are starting to worry about those damn leafers from New York.  But here on 1to10, we’re going to explore the depths and variegated folds of that tortured terrain called data backup and storage. If you have comments, objections, personal horror stories or other ideas to contribute (things you’d like us to review) let us know.  You can comment on a post, or email us at: david [AT] 1to10reviews [DOT] com

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I got the red rings of death about a month ago.  It’s a well documented (and sucky) phenomenon that afflicts older XBOX 360’s.  Basically, if three red lights come on around the power switch you know that you are well and truly fuct.

I am not technical and geeked out enough to try the “rip it open and tinker” method that Doug demonstrates on Crunchgear, so I tried the anti-intuitive but briefly successful method of superheating:

I was shocked that this actually did fix my XBOX… for about 3 days.  Then it crapped out again.   Fortunately for me, I shop at Costco.  From all reports Microsoft has actually been very good about fixing or replacing these consoles, and I did print out a free UPS shipping label.  But then I decided I was better off to simply purchase a new console at Costco and return the old one.  Their outstanding return policy is, after all, part of the reason I shop there.

So now I have a new XBOX 360, and one with a 60GB HDD instead of a lowly 10GB HDD.  Hooray.  Except, all my data is still on the 10GB.  This includes saved games, unlocked songs on Guitar Hero, downloaded content (DLC) like map packs for Call of Duty and more.  In aggregate that represents a large investment in time and energy.  But I don’t know how to get my data off the old HDD and onto the new one.

I’m aware that there is a transfer kit, with a special cable and a disc.  But XBOX doesn’t sell it.  And neither does any other reputable retailer.  I found and bought one on Ebay, but it turned out to be a complete POS.  The disc does not work at all – the XBOX 360 reads it as a “mixed media disc” and won’t effect the transfer.  This leaves me with very limited options.  I’ve emailed Microsoft asking for help, but I am not sure what their response will be.  I’ll update this post when I find out.  If you have other suggestions, I’m listening.

If I were forced to give this entire experience (the red rings of death and the difficulty in making a data transfer) a numeric score between one and ten… Well you can probably guess what my ranking would be.

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LG makes a lot of different devices, from Netbook computers to stove tops to televisions and blueray players. Today I’m reviewing one of their smaller gadgets, a pair of bluetooth stereo headphones.  This is a pretty straightforward hardware review, not some kitchy byplay full of personal commentary on the state of our civilazation and the degradation of our social milieu.  Mostly.

No, seriously, let’s cut straight to the chase.  What’s the point of having bluetooth headphones?  You don’t want wire draped all over your body, getting caught on chairs, keyboards, elbows, and the other myriad detritus of urban living.  Ideally, you’d also like good stereo sound, decent bass, comfort, and a microphone so you can use them on your mobile handset or bluetooth-enabled PC with Skype.  The HBS-250 delivered.

Comfort: The headphones are comfortable.  Even though they have foam padding against the ear, my ears don’t get hot and sweaty.  And since they’re not in-ear, there’s no gradual pain or discomfort from having something stuck in your ear all day.  The behind the ear clips are easy to use and totally innocuous.

Sound: The sound is great.  There’s an EQ button for switching between sound settings (more bass, live settings, etc.)  They frankly sound very good.

Ease-of-use: Setup on the iPhone and the computer was excellent.  Simple, straightforward and easy to do.  Just turn on the “discovery” feature on the handset / computer, turn on the headphones, and then you get a “would you like to synch the HBS-250?” message.  Done.  Now, operating the headphones is slightly more challenging.  The buttons are small and a little finicky – you have to get used to which ones are located where, and gently feel around.  Also, and this is actually pretty lame, the skip /reverse track feature doesn’t work with my iPhone.  The headphones are built with LG mobile handsets specifically in mind, but I think this is a pretty key feature, and I’d like to be able to skip tracks without having to go directly to the device.  Volume seems to work fine though, as does pause / play.  So that’s something at least.  But the tricky buttons and failed skip issues are the weakest points for me.

Phone calls: I was happy to see that these headphones come with a microphone, making them perfectly usable as a hands-free calling headset.  The sound quality is good.  It’s isn’t great, but it’s good.  I can hear the other person’s conversation perfectly.  Folks on the other end of the call say I sound a little like I’m in a tunnel, but perfectly understandable.  I did have one call (out of 3 test calls over a period of 2 days, in a variety settings) that was a total fail.  Solly couldn’t hear me at all, and I had to switch to just the phone itself, where I was then totally undersatandable.  Still, all bluetooth headsets I’ve used have occassional failed calls, so this wasn’t too distressing.  Maybe I should be more finicky, but for the most part I think these are pretty good.

Still and all, I think the headphones / music part is the big win for these.  I was bummed initially that they aren’t a little more “sports” oriented – I don’t think I’d want to use these to run with for instance.  Sweaty foam bums me out.  But, then again, I always exercise with a shuffle, and those don’t do bluetooth, so the point becomes pretty moot.

If I were forced to give the LG HBS-250 a numeric rating between 1 and 10, I’d cal it an 8.  Usability issues notwithstanding, this is a good looking, effective gadget that delivers a lot of value.  (Speaking of value, these aren’t super cheap at $80.  But if you’re in the market for bluetooth headphones and you have the cash to spend, I’d pick some up.) Nicole Lee at CNET has an excellent review with additional specs and info.

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It’s no secret that I’ve had an iPhone for a long time.  Sol and I waited in line at the Capitola Mall when the first iPhone launched in June of 2007.  We were even featured in the Santa Cruz Sentinel because we were wacky enough to do so (and we projected Star Wars onto the ceiling of the mall while we waited.)  I’ve enjoyed the iPhone tremendously for almost 2 years straight.  As I am notoriously hard on my gadgets, this is a minor miracle.  When the 3G iPhone came out, I decided that I would stick it out with my old-school Gen. 1 iPhone.  It works great.  Until a couple of weeks ago.

In Vegas for a soccer tournament, my iPhone spontaneously developed a huge issue: the top half of the touch screen stopped working.   It’s pretty hard to use a touch-screen phone when the screen won’t respond to touching.  This left me without a way to communicate for several hours, and more importantly, left me with a device void.

As much as I enjoy the design, form factor, and user experience of the iPhone, there have always been some things that bother me.  For instance, the email function.  The push and pull are slow and sometimes unreliable (at least in my experience.)  Sometimes emails don’t make it out at all, or they come in much later than they should.  Before I got my iPhone, I had a Blackberry 8700c, the last one with the scroll wheel on the side. It worked great.  RIM has it nailed when it comes to mobile email, and I’ve missed the steady reliability of Blackberry email.

Ever since it came out 4 or 5 months ago, the Blackberry Bold (the 9000) has caught my eye.  With a defunct iPhone, and an AT&T account already setup, I thought this was a good chance to try it out.  Worst case, I always have 30 days to return it.  So Monday morning I went to the AT&T store here in SF to check out the Bold.

First thing I discovered, the thing is expensive.  Even with a 2 year re-commitment, I still had to shell out $400 with a $100 mail-in rebate.  Second thing I noticed?  It’s probably worth it.  It is a beautiful device from the gorgeous screen to the cool leather backing.  Drool.

The keyboard is crisp and easy to use, and even though I’ve never liked the nipple / nubbin / pearl / trackball thingy, I found that’s not that hard to get used to.  Email setup and functionality are easy and work like a dream.  One thing I was concerned about was my address book – the iPhone syncs so darn well with my Mac Address Book (and everything else on my Mac.)  I read a bunch of different blog posts, and found very mixed reviews on all the software product.  Luca Filigheddu.com had the best solution I could find: Google Sync.  I exported my Mac Address Book, uploaded it to my Gmail, downloaded Google Sync for Blackberry, and voila everything is where it should be.  Now I have a phone, an amazing mobile email device, and something that is functional for media playback (video, music, etc.)  It’s not as good as the iPhone, but it’s functional.

Now, there’ve been hundreds of reviews of the Bold already, and I don’t need to add yet more detritus to the review world in that sense.  So I’m sticking to the theme of replacing my iPhone with a Blackberry Bold, as opposed to an outright review of an already thoroughly reviewed device.

Unsurprisingly, there are some things I seriously miss about the iPhone.  Media playback is one.  It’s not clean or intuitive on the Bold.  The memory card (I got an 8GB Micros SD for $20 at Buy.com) was easy to insert and load, a lot of the file types supported by the iPhone won’t play on the Bold.  The screen is crisp and beautiful, but it’s a little smaller than the iPhone, and I’ve had a hard time finding things that will play.  This is annoying when I have multiple 1/2 hour commutes on the Caltrain that cry out for entertainment.

In general, I’d say that the overall user experience (form factor, software aesthetics, heft and polish, etc.) are just not as good on the Blackberry.  My wife put it well – the Blackberry is a performance device, it gets the job done.  The Bold is a beautiful phone, but it’s just not an iPhone.

Having used the Blackberry Bold for 3 weeks straight, I’ve come to a decision.  I like having an iPhone.  I love Blackberries – but it just ain’t the same.  Conveniently for me, Apple announced the iPhone 3Gs just this past Tuesday, well within my 30 days tryout period.  So I’ve returned the Bold.  I am waiting it out with my old-skool 8700c for another 8 days, and then it’s back to the iPhone.

If I were forced to give the Blackberry Bold (as a replacement for my iPhone) a numeric rating between 1 and 10, I’d call it a 6.  It’s an amazing device, and if I were going to keep with the Blackberry, I would’t own any other.  But it doesn’t replace the iPhone.  It really doesn’t come close.

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I’ve written about water a couple times in the past.  Here, and again here and here.   Water is great.  ”Water is life.” (A point for anyone who can identify the quote.) But drinking plain water, especially tap water, can get kind of old.  That’s why, despite the relatively high cost and seeming utter absurdity of the purchase, I agreed to buy a Penguin.  Even more surprising is the fact that I love it.

The concept is pretty straightforward.  You fill a small glass bottle (20 ounces, or about .6 liters) with tap water, place it in the machine, lock it closed, hit the lever in short 2-second bursts, release the excess pressure, unlock the machine, and voila you have sparkling, bubbly seltzer / soda water.  (Seltzer or salsa?) The machine sort of looks like a penguin.  Hence the name.

Here’s a short video I recorded of the device in action:

As you can see, this appliance has lots of stainless steel, and it feels nicely solid in your hands.  There are no wires or cords, and it requires no electricity.  It comes with 2 glass carafes, and two Co2 cartridges.  The Penguin does use large carbon-dioxide cylinders, each of which lasts for about 6 months (depending of your frequency of use – each cartridge fills about 60 carafes.)  Also, the thing is just fun to use.  I like to squeezer a little lime juice into the carafe, after I pump it full of gas.

Now, if you prefer flat water, this is obviously not for you.  But if you like the fuzzy-nosed tingle of sparkling water, this is a cool, cool device.  I wouldn’t ordinarily buy Pelegrino or another sparkling water brand, so I can’t argue that it’s saving me money long term.  But if you do buy sprakling water at the store with any quantity or frequency, this machine will probably pay for itself in less than a year.  And this is a gadget that I definitely consider “eco-friendly” – especially compared with the possibility of an endless stream of glass or plastic bottles from the store.  You’re cutting down consumables by a huge margin, despite the recyclable carbon-dioxide cartridges.

Speaking of money, this is device is not exactly cheap.  it runs $200 at Williams Sonoma (that’s where I got mine.) Re-fill cartridges run $30, so they’ve set themselves up with a nice, repeating revenue stream. But I think the costs still bear out in your favor, depending on the variables mentioned above.  However, there’s no value you can really place on joy – and this device is joyful.

The WS website (and other locations around the web) offer other video demos, all of  which probably have greater artistic merit than mine (read: better lighting, a superior camera, and a better looking spokesperson.)  But I had fun making my video.  The company behind the Penguin is called Soda Stream USA; you can choose to purchase it directly from them, as well as finding additional recipes on their site (for those that crave flavor.)  There’s another excellent review of the device over at Uber Review if you want a second opinion.

If I were forced to give this appliance a numeric rating between 1and 10, I’d call it a 9.  It’s pretty, it’s functional, it’s green, it’s simple, and it’s fun to use.  If I have a complaint, it’s on cost.  Not because it’s not worth it, I just like my money in my own wallet.

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Wow.  That sounds harsh.  I actually think the Mophie Juicepack is a really cool gadget.  Basically it’s an external battery for your iPhone.  The product design is fantastic – it’s got a black, slightly rubberized, really high quality feeling to it.  The colors (black outside, green inside) look sharp, and it has a neat light-up battery meter.  Sol got one for his 3G iPhone and loves it.  Loves it. (I sent a message to Mophie prior to publishing this review, but they’ve declined to comment.  )

Once I saw his, I knew I wanted one also.  When your phone is starting to run down mid-day, just pop it into the Juice Pack and boom – you get at least another 3 hours or so out of your phone, and you’re still totally mobile.  Sounds great right?  Well, it is great.  When it works.

My first Mophie Juicepack was a dud.   A lemon.  It didn’t work.  I charged it up over night (using a regular 10 pin iPod cable) and the following day, after my phone was about half dead, I popped it into the Juicepack.  Immediately I heard the little upbeat “ping” noise that means the phone is charging.  Sweet.  Until 4 seconds later, I heard the downbeat “pong” noise that means you’ve just unplugged your iPhone.  Weak sauce.

Basically, the iPhone would find the power source, ping the connection, show the “charging” icon with the lightning bolt, and then lose the connection and stop charging.  Naturally I called tech support, and they were honestly great.  The guy I spoke with had me run through some crazy diagnostics, including sticking a butter knife in the connector (it was pretty sweet) to test whether it just needed a reset.  But the test and  reset did not fix the problem, so the Mophie guys sent me out a replacement.  It came in two days.  I have no complaints on tech support, they were stellar. 

Sadly, the new one didn’t do a whole lot better.  It has a slightly less severe, but even more annoying version, of the same exact problem. What happens is this: I plug in the iPhone.  “Ping” goes the connection and BOOM! we’re charging.  Awesome.  Until 30 seconds or so goes by, and the phone “pongs” because it lost the connection.  For 5 seconds.  Then “ping” we’re charging again.  In the 3 hours I had my iPhone plugged into the Mophie Juicepack, it connected, disconnected, and then reconnected no less than 81 times.  I kept count for a while, but got bored.  Do you have any idea how distracting it is to hear your phone going “ping,” “pong,” “ping” in your pocket over and over again?  “Gee David, why not just turn it on silent?”  Nice try.  Vibrating in your pocket ever 15-20 seconds is, if anything, even worse than pinging and ponging.  I had the one of the most annoying, distracting, frustrating dinners of all time on Friday with my damn iPhone buzzing on and off every quarter minute.

Now, as I said, Sol has one of these for the 3G and loves it. And the new “Air” Juicepack for 3G’s looks sweet as well. So maybe just the Gen. 1 version has quality control issues.  The look, style, and feel of this device is so cool, but the performance on two in a row was awful.  And at $99 (a damn hefty price for an accessory) I’d expect solid, reliable performance.  I was prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt on the first failure.  But two in a row is two too many for me.  If I were forced to give the Mophie Juicepack for gen. 1 iPhones a numeric rating between 1 and 10, it’s a 3 for me.  Outstanding marks for design, dismal scores for quality assurance and performance.  Below is a 12second video of the Juicepack in action. 

Mophie Juicepack for Gen. 1 iPhone on 12seconds.tv

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eStarling makes several WiFi connected digital photo frames, and I’ve been playing with their Impact V for a bit.  I’m impressed.

From the moment you open the box, eStarling does a pretty good job holding your hand and making use of the frame pretty simple.  You have all the usual options for displaying pictures that past digital frames have lead us to expect, including memory card slots that accommodate a couple different card types (SD, MS, MMC.)  But what’s way more interesting to me is the wireless and social mechanisms for displaying pictures.

When you pull the device out of the box, a greeting card immediately invites you to plug in the frame and connect it to your wifi connection (beware: this frame is much cooler if you have a wifi network.)  Once you’re connected, the frame prompts you to visit their website and activate your account.  Once you do you will get an email address dedicated to your frame, and you (or your friends and family) can email pictures to your frame.  You can also log into your account on their website to upload pictures from your computer to your eStarling account – these will then appear on your frame (it took my pictures about 15 minutes to show up.)  One of the neatest features is the social component – you can link your frame to a variety of social websites and services, including Facebook, Flickr, Phtobucket, Picassa, Twitter (not sure about this one), YouTube and more.   In addition to these services, you can also subscribe to RSS feeds – popular ones like National Geographic or even a user-designated feed.  You can also post small videos to play on your frame if you so choose.

I did have some issues with some of the social services.  For instance, I linked my Flickr account to my eStarling frame.  It was a pretty simple, one-click connection which presumably links up eStarling’s service with Flickrs API.  Two issues presented themselves though:

1. After clicking through the Flickr to link up the accounts, instead of a “Success, awesome job, well done!” screen, I was presented with a page full of gibberish.  There was no message to tell me whether I had successfully linked the account.  I didn’t know for sure until photos started appearing on the frame.

2. When those photos did appear, they weren’t mine.  They were photos of friends mine, people to whom I am linked on Flickr.  But none of my own photos made it into the frame.  Now, I like my friends and all, but I don’t need their photos on my frame.  Whether it’s going to sit in my home, or in my parent’s home, I want my own pictures on my frame.

Ultimately I was forced to use the “custom RSS” feature and take my Flickr account’s own RSS feed and manually link that with my frame.  Even after doing that, only my most recent set (about 20 pictures or so) showed up on the frame.  I don’t really know how to pull specific sets or additional photos from Flickr into the frame.

The frame has an eight inch display (800×600 pixels) and the clarity is pretty darn sharp. (Any blurring in the images in this post is due to the photographer, not the frame.)  It’s a touch screen interface, and there are light-up touch screen buttons along the right side.  You must use the touch screen in order to connect to the wireless network, but almost everything else can be accomplished through eStarling’s web portal.   The touch buttons let you skip through photos, or jump back to menus to select specifc photos, or access settings for the frame.  But I found the touch buttons a little finicky to use – fortunately the included remote also allows you to control action on the frame.

Lastly, there’s packaging.  In the unboxing I discovered very little wasteful or non-recyclable material.  There was one small piece of closed-cell foam for padding, and a foam sleeve for the frame.  Everything else was cardboard, including the majority of the boxe’s padding.  5 gold stars for being conscious of the environment.

Overall I was impressed with the frame.  The picture clarity, the simple setup, and the social components were all fantastic.  I love that it’s wifi, and I dig the fact that I can update the photos remotely, up to and including if the frame is in another state (or country.)  However, I do think the web interface and tools need a little refinement.  They are feature-rich but lacking in the fine points of usability.  Some improvements could include better feedback to user actions (letting you know if you succeeded in linking an account), and better fine-tuning of services (to include / exclude friends’ photos, etc.)  They don’t need more options, they just need to refine and improve the ones they’ve got.

eStarling Wireless Digital Photo Frame on 12seconds.tv

Daniel Lim at Slashgear also wrote a nice review of this frame. If I were forced to give this frame a numeric rating, something which I am loathe to do, I would give it an 8 out of 10. They did a good job.  I just hope they keep improving the little sucker.

This post is also available on LIVEdigitally.

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I’ve been thinking about a bluetooth headset for a long time.  Since I got my iPhone, I’ve almost exclusively used the included iPod headphones / speakerphone to talk with other people.  But it tangles often and it’s starting to get worn out – the rubber on the earpieces has rubbed off completely.  :(  That combined with the California headset law (and the joy of playing with new toys) convinced me to try to go blue.  Eric Benderoff’s review of several top bluetooth headsets gave me a little background, and the pure sex appeal of the Jawbone II gave me a starting place.

There are a lot of different possible categories from which to assess a gadget like this: form factor, simplicity of use, pairing ability, sound quality, battery life, durability, cost…  I don’t often write really analytical reviews which numerically asses and assign rankings to devices, but this time I plan to for the sake time and conveneience.  Elsewise this review will ramble, extensively.  Long.

I will rank each of the above categories with a numeric ranking between 1 and 10 (naturally) and then average out the scores.  By doing this I am essentially saying 1.) that each of the chosen categories have equal weighting, and 2.) that other possible categories (say, color) do not factor into my assessment.  Those are both true things, so take my review with the appropriate grains of sodium hydrochloride.

Form Factor: 10 (this is a sexy looking gadget, slim, black, ribbed and fancy)

Simplicity of Use: 7 (as bluetooths go, it’s pretty easy to start, pair, adjust and figure out what’s happening)

Pairing Ability: 7 (turn it on and turn on bluetooth on your phone – they just seem to find each other)

Sound Quality: 6 (I can hear people OK.  When I need to turn the volume up high, it seems to get a little fuzzy.  People can hear me OK. Not great, but OK.  This might be due to poor pairing, or simply the quality of the device. )

Battery Life: 6 (battery life seems to be about what you’d expect, or just a hair better.  I seem to get about 2-3 hours of active talk time.  If it sits idle on a full charge for a couple days, I can still use it.  If it sits idle after a full charge for 5 or 6 days, not so good. )

Durability: 4 (the device body seems to be fairly compact and well made, I expect it will last as well as anything else out there.  The ear pieces are another issue.  As you’ll see in the pictures, one of my stems broke.  Jawbone is kind enough to package multiple stems [for differently sized and shaped heads  and ears] so I had a backup, even though it’s a suboptimal size.  I did NOT mishandle nor manhandle the ear piece – just rotated it as it’s designed to be rotated, and the little sucker just snapped.  Boy was I irritated. )

Cost: 4 (this is a pricey little sucker.  I’ve seen it at the T-Mobile store for as little as $99, and at a Verizon store for $129.  If you shop around you’ll find it for somewhere over $100.

If we assume that each of the above categories carrie an equal weighting, then the score on the Jawbone II bluetooth headset comes out to 6.29 (10+7+7+6+6+4+4=6.2857147)

I like this device’s style and simplicity.  It’s elegant, pretty, fairly easy to use, and the it sounds good.  Not “oh my god holy crap” amazing, but it sounds good.  The cost of the unit, and the fact that the stem broke in the manner it did are both very offputting for me though, and they are the biggest limiting factors in my estimation.  That particular pair of issues (high cost with questionable durability) is expecially disagreeable.  I’ll be interested to see if/how the company responds to my customer service request.  If they do, I will update this post.

Forced to give a numeric rating between 1 and 10, this device averaged out to a 6.29.

This review is also available at LIVEdigitally.

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On a scale from 1 to 10, 12seconds has done something really cool.

Today 12seconds.tv has done 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 of how the app works:

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.  If I were forced to give the iPhone app a numeric score between 1 and 10, I’d call it an 8

Related Posts:

MG Siegler at VentureBeat

Greg Kumparak at MobileCrunch

Rodney Rumford at Face Reviews

This post is also published on LIVEdigitally.

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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 LIVEdigitally.

Some other related posts:

Engadget

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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:

News 4 Gamers

Gizmodo

CNET News

Tom’s Guide

——————————————————-

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 LIVEdigitally.

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I’ve had an iPhone for more that a year and a half.  I waited in line at an AT&T store the at the mall in Capitola in Santa Cruz, CA in June of 2007 to get the first iPhone.  I love my iPhone, and I’ve been generally happy with it since I’ve had it.  Sure, there a f ew things here  and there that I would change; I’d like better email service, and there should be a landscape keyboard available in every app, but on the whole it’s one of the best devices I’ve ever owned.  Everything was grand, until recently.  

In the last 2 or 3 months, I’ve had trouble talking on the phone.  Specifically if I just hold the phone to my face, sans bluetooth or headset (you know, like a normal phone) then people on the other end can’t hear me.  It’s an issue for me when my phone doesn’t let me talk to other people.  I went to my local Apple store and asked about getting it serviced.  They don’t do servicing.  If it’s outside of warranty (which mine is) then I can do one of three things:

1. Deal with it
2. Buy a new 3G phone
3. Pay $200 and they’ll give me a brand new (or refurbished) phone of the same type

iPhone vs. Google Phone on 12seconds.tv

This post is also available on LIVEdigitally.

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This wireless laser Desktop 6000 v 3.0 mouse and keyboard have some pretty cool features.  I’ll start with the mouse, and then my impressions, and then the keyboard, and my further impressions.

The mouse is well shaped, comfortable, and has some nifty features.  The front thumb button lets you magnify a small section of the screen, and the rear button lets you move back a page.  In the settings area you can re-designate some different functions for those buttons.  The USB wireless “dongle” fits into the bottom of the mouse; this dongle connects both thhe mouse and thhe keyboard.

The mouse has worked great so far.  the plastic and rubber surfacing is comfortable and pleasantly tactile.  The “magnify“ feature is OK, but the back button is awesome.  When I use my portable mouse I reach for it, and I’m  bummed that it’s not there.   This is not an incredible innovation – features like this have been around a long time.  But efficiency is a funny thing: once you get used to a simpler / faster / more efficient mechanism, it’s hard to give it up.  Overall, I am very happy with the mouse.

The keyboard has similar whiz-bang features and a wrist-friendly layout.  I’m used to using my old-school Dell keyboard, complete with coffee stains and non-ergonomic design.  This new black and smoke gray model, with it’s ergonomic curvatures, enlarged “critical keys” and rubberized hand rests seems like a huge step up.  There are some hot keys as well with useful shortcuts and lots of customization options.  My favorite key is actually the “documents key;” you can use it to open a specific folder (like “My Documents.”    Again, efficiency is a pleasant thing, and easy to get used to.

Here’s the issue: performance has been spotty.  When I first plugged in the dongle and tried to type I saw significant lag.  For a minute or two the keystrokes would be fine, then all of a sudden no type appeared.  Then ten seconds later, it all appeared in a rush. I try to delete or backup knowing that I mis-typed something, but no type is appearing (or disappearing.)  Then I have to just stop and wait for things to realign.   Sometimes it would type fine for a minute, and then lag for eight or ten characters, and then catch up again.  Also, sometimes the keyboard seems to lose itself.  By this I mean that though I haven’t moved the cursor or moused into a new application, suddenly the keyboard seems to stop typing, and I am forced to click on something else, and then click back into the “typing zone.”  Not OK.

I tried moving the dongle to a couple of different USB ports, tried the “reset / reconnect” button, and also tried installing the software that came with the setup (I like to check for plug-and-play compatibility before installing software).   After doing all of that, the performance improved significantly.  Having shut down and re-booted a half dozen times while running these peripherals seems to have helped as well.   At this point performance is largely acceptable, though not quite equivalent to my old PS/2 connected keyboard.  However the ergonomics, hotkeys,  and overall shiny-newness makes up for a lot.  As long as they type-pace keeps up with the speed of the keystrokes, I think I will stick with it.  But I’m not throwing out my old keyboard just yet.

This rig costs $99 retail – you can purchase it from Microsoft directly, or from any number of alternative online and traditional retailers.  Overall I think it’s a pretty good rig.  If I were forced to give it a numeric score from one to ten, I’d give it a 6.   If performance were as solid as my old wired keyboard, I’d give it a 9.  There’s another great review of this item over at IStartedSomething with some beautiful pictures if you want some more info on this setup.

This review is also posted at LIVEdigitally.

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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:

1. It should tell time
2. Effective alarm(s)
3. Luminescence (push button, generally) for night time use
4. Altimeter (this tells your elevation)
5. Barometer (for monitoring changes in air pressure, a good signal of impending stormy weather)
6. Compass
7. 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 LIVEdigitally.

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I’m at the airport in Dallas, Texas.  Ordinarily I would find that depressing, but I have two reasons to celebrate.  1.) I am on my way to Cozumel, Mexico for a scuba vacation.  And 2.) they have the coolest x-ray machine of all time:

According to the security lady, this is one of only two such machines in the country.  What’s so special about thiese?  You can leave your laptop in your bag.  You don’t need three different little plastic bins.  You don’t need to juggle your backpack, carry-on, laptop and other junk with tired, sweaty people glaring at you for wasting their time.  You still have to take off your shoes, but let’s not be greedy.  This is a good start.

It was shocking to see the sign say: “Please Read >>  keep these items in your bag…”  And there’s a picture of a computer.  Holy mackerel.  That is rad. 

I like having my computer with me, and this process makes it even more pleasent.  I hate flying, so anything that makes the process simpler is something I cherish and appreciate.  For this reason alone, I am now a fan of Dallas International Airport.  And this killer new x-ray machine gets a 10 out of 10.  El yay.

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It looks like the Humvee of iPhone cases:

This thing is a brick.  A giant, yellow brick.  As I was testing it out for the day, a number of people made fun of me.  But I told them what I’m about to tell you.

This case is not intended for everyday carry.  It’s bulky, heavy, and clunky because it’s meant to withstand a hailstorm while being driven over by a tank.  (If the ground underneath it were sufficiently squishy, I think it just might survive the aforementioned tank rollover.)

The purpose of this case is to be waterproof, shockproof, dropproof, and ass-kicking proof. It is not elegant or sophisticated.  But it will withstand a nuclear bomb blast.

The o-ring seals well and tightly.  Water spilled onto it from a faucet tap at full blast never penetrated the interior, and no condensation or moisture built up inside the case.  I might not want to go SCUBA diving with it, but in rain or brief submersion, I would be totally comfortable.   All major functions except for one are accessible in this case, that one being the silent/vibrate toggle.  It is not too difficult to hear or be heard when talking through the case, and the touch-screen is very responsive.  I’d put it at 90% of normal sensitivity, even though your using it through the plastic, waterproof membrane.

I have only two major complaints, and the second one is unreasonable.

Complaint #1: The steep edges of the case where it borders the touch screen can make it difficult to type.  I often mis-hit keys when typing an email, SMS, or website address as a result.  No bueno.

Complaint #2: This is the unreasonable one.  I’ve just found out that this case will not be compatible with the new iPhone.  Of course, there’s no way that OB could have built this for the 3G iPhone, the specs did not exist.  But it’s a bummer.

I did not let complaint #2 affect my review score.  For what this case is, for what it’s meant to be, it does a a great job, and is fully worth an 8 out of 10.  If you are looking for a svelte, stylish case, look elsewhere.  If you are looking for a case that will let you bring your iPhone into a wet week in the jungles of Madagascar, this is your case.

You can purchase them here, directly from Otterbox.  At $70, if you want a waterprrof case that lets you retain almost all the functionality, this is a great purchase.  And I’ve been assure that they will have an Armor-series case for the 3G iPhone when it becomes available.

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So I got a new webcam.  When I’m at home using my desktop (that I put together myself, with Jeff’s help) I don’t have built-in access to a webcam.  Since I love 12seconds.tv, and I don’t have a phone that does video (stupid iPhone) I am forced to always use my macbook in order to update my video status.  I thought it would be convenient to be able to make videos from my PC desktop as well as my macbook – hence, this review.

What I got is the Microsoft Lifecam VX-5000.  It’s a small USB webcam, with built-in microphone.  Here are some images:

The good:

• It’s attractive – the black with green/yellow piping looks nice (hey, it matters)
• The foot / base is pretty cool, flexible and sturdy – makes it easy to stand on a desktop or curl over the top of a monitor
• cable length is pretty good, long enough to reach a machine that’s on the ground or off to the side of the desktop
• built-in microphone works well – used it for Skype calls and to record video – has had no problem picking up my voice, no need to speak at an ABNORMAL VOLUME! 

The less good:

• I wish it was wireless (that would be killer, no stupid cord to deal with)
• Be nice if it was smaller, and could mount more or less permanently

My primary uses for a webcam are these: Skype video calls, 12seconds.tv, and Facebook videos.  For all three of those purposes, this webcam works very well.  Although I wish it had a few more features, I do think this is a quality webcam and works quite well.

MS is trying to push it as an integrative tool for their MS Live network of products, and they include a CD in the box chock-full of software to that effect.  However, I tried using it without any CD’s or downloaded drivers, and it worked great right out of the box.  No issues or recognition problems.  (I am running XP Pro with SP2.)  The camera goes for between $40-$50 right now, and is available at several locations (though  it does not seem to be on Amazon, Newegg, or Buy.com.) 

Gizmodo put up a nifty review of this webcam as well, with an embedded press release from MS.  If you are looking for an attractive USB webcam with built-in microphone, I think this is a solid, cool product.  7 out of 10.

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So I have been using the iPhone Defender case from Otterbox for about 5 days straight now. I have some thoughts. I think the easiest thing will be to break this up into several categories:

• Beauty
• Fit and Finish
• Protection
• Accessibility
• Functionality

Beauty: 8

The case looks great. There is no question that it bulks the phone up a bit, which is an unfortunate side effect of almost any case you put an iPhone into. But if you are into the rugged, rubberized look then I think you will dig the appearance of this case. I have the black model, and it looks serious.

Fit and Finish: 6

Ok, the rubberized, silicon skin is great. It doesn’t feel sticky, but it has the right amount of tack to keep it firmly in your hand. I like the feel of it. However, when you peel off the skin, the plastic underneath feels a little bit cheap. Also, it is nearly impossible to figure out to open the darn thing. At first I didn’t actually realize that the skin comes off. Once I figured that out, I couldn’t see how to open the plastic case itself. No doors, no levers, no buttons. I finally noticed that there were small holes in strategic locations around the outside of the case. I took a small screwdriver and pried those open, and the case finally popped free.

The whole time I was holding my breath because the plastic felt friable and likely to snap. It didn’t and the thing opened fine, but it was definitely not intuitive. Later, when I looked on the website I found this video about using the case – I wish I had seen it earlier. To be clear, you NEED to watch this video if you are going to own this case.

Protection: 8

This is a”lifestyle” case from Otterbox, meant for every day use. It is not waterproof, but it will certainly protect from every day bumps and drops, and a light rain sprinkle. For it’s intended purpose, I think this case performs admirably. It’s not supposed to protect from full immersion or nook-u-lar attacks. It works very well for casual, every day living and usage.

Accessibility: 6
As the website notes, you can not access the “silence” the phone using the the slider button on the top left of the iPhone. While they did disclaim this issue in the product write-up, the fact remains that this is a pretty core piece of functionality to be able to access. I was in a meeting, and then later ewnt to the movies (to see Rambo IV.) I did not want to go through the hassle of removing the case (it’s a process.) Both times I was forced to power off my phone, and it would have been much simpler use the silence button.

I could also have put it in Airplane mode, but that required more steps, and is not much quicker to come back than a straight up power-off. I don’t see why they don’t use another flap in the silicon cover or create some kind of toggle. There are plastic bumpers at the corners, presumably for both protection and for structural integrity, but this is not a bomb-proof case. I think they need to integrate this feature, it’s something I use every day.

Aside from the issue of the silencer button, this case give pretty good access to all the other features. The camera lens, home-screen button, volume buttons headphone plug and power plug all work fine. It is not possible to set the phone into its cradle while in the case, but it is easy enough to simply plug the cord directly into the phone’s base.

Functionality: 5

I did run into one major problem with the functionality of the phone while in the case. The issue was typing. Trying to type text messages and emails is SIGNIFICANTLY more difficult with the case on. The problem is the ridges on the side of the case. They stick up and make it very difficult to hit letters that are close to the edge of the screen. The touch screen is already difficult enough to type, and this makes it worse.

One other small problem was a weird issue. With the case and cover on, a wet spot would appear under the clear plastic cover, over the screen. It almost looked oily. I took the case apart and thoroughly cleaned both the plastic cover and the screen of the phone, but the problem persisted. Really weird, and very annoying. However, when I watched the video, I discovered that Otterbox is well aware of the problem, and has a solution. As the video demonstrates, before you put the phone into the case, you should clean it off and then rub your palm over the screen. This fixes the problem. I don’t know why or how, but it totally worked. If anyone knows why this works, please feel free to comment below. Bottom line, WATCH THAT VIDEO if you buy an iPhone Defender case.

On the positive side though, I am very impressed by how well the touch screen works, even through the plastic covering. It seems to me to be 95% as sensitive as it was without any covering at all, and that’s excellent.

Now for the total. If I add up all the scores (8+6+8+6+5) I get a total of 33. Divided by 5 we get an averaged score of 6.6, and we come out with a (rounded) total score of 7. So that is my review total for the iPhone Defender case from Otterbox, 7 out 10 and a confident recommendation. If you want a good looking case that will protect your phone and give you access to most of its features, this is a good purchase.

At $49.95 (plus tax and shipping) they are not cheap, but it could well be worth it to protect your (rather) expensive phone. Just be prepared to suffer a new learning curve in typing – if you are iPhone email freak or text-master then I would be wary of this case. And WATCH THAT VIDEO.

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