In a very visible, transparent, and elucidative email to their current customers, AT&T is making a blatant plea to current subscribers to stay on board at AT&T.  Touting their well publicized advantage of web browsing while on the phone, AT&T has sent emails to their customer base (and even dedicated portions of their website)  to building a sandbag dike against the flood of Verizon-bound customers.

The ad says it all (look right dude).

On a scale from 1to10, this smacks of desperation. Nevertheless, if you got it, flaunt it.  It’s an advantage, albeit a fleeting one, and they need to keep all the subscribers they can.  Go get ‘em. Er, keep ‘em.

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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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In my email today (picture below) I got an email from Apple, pushing the new Adobe Creative Suites software.  In the midst of the brouhaha over Apple trying to kill Adobe’s Flash software, they’re still pushing other Adobe products.  Is this:

• Apple being fair-minded?
• Apple making an explicit peace offering ?
• Just a random occurrence based on product availability and consumer email marketing schedules?
• Is Apple just trying to make more money on a lucrative software suite ? (likely)
• Is Apple being ironical? (That would be awesome, but not super likely methinks.)

In any case, it caught my eye, so I’m sharing it with you, satisfied reader.  You know who you are.

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“Hey Google!  Foster City gets a 10 out of 10.  Give us Fiber-Optic Broadband.”

Here’s a satellite view of Foster City (from Google Maps):

View Larger Map

And here’s the statement I wrote about our community, explaining why Foster City should become a test-bed community:

Foster City is a vibrant, multicultural community in the heart of Silicon Valley.  Adjacent to San Mateo, and located squarely between San Francisco and San Jose, Foster City is a family-oriented neighborhood filled with Latino, Indian, Asian and Caucasian nationalities who mingle together seamlessly and provide color and culture to the entire community.

A strong fiber optic network would in no way enhance the safety, multiculturalism or flavor of the community.  :)  However, because the population is both diverse and largely employed in the technology sector, Google would have a fantastic test-bed of users who represent different ethnic backgrounds and simultaneously understand and work in the technology sector, and are therefore equipped to provide useful feedback on the deployment and effectiveness of the service.

Come on Google.  Let’s make it happen. If you want to contact me, feel free to email me at david [at] 1to10reviews [dot] com (via Gmail on Google Apps for small businesses.)  Foster City would be a perfect test bed, and you know it.  Bring it on home.

Foster City on the 4th of July

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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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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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On a scale from 1 to 10, Time Machine can really save your bacon.

Mac has a very cool program that fits seamlessly into September’s theme on data backup and protection. Not September anymore you say? Well, things have been busy. Nevertheless, for those who haven’t heard of it (both of you) this software merits a little blog love: Time Machine.

From their website:

“Never again worry about losing your digital files. Time Machine automatically saves up-to-date copies of everything on your Mac — photos, music, videos, documents, applications, and settings. If you ever have the need, you can easily go back in time to recover anything.”

As with many Apple products, Time Machine is built well and built smart.  It will regularly remind you if you haven’t backed up recently.  And it’s simplicity itself to open the program, pick a day / time that you want to restore, and it will revert your computer to the state it was in at that time.  Cool?  But it gets better.

I might lose a file, delete a photo, or even corrupt my iTunes library so that it shows only gibberish instead of my meticulously labeled and organized music.  Any of these issues are incredibly frustrating, but I might not want to revert my entire computer back to two weeks ago, cause I’ve gotten new emails or shot new pictures since then, or who knows what.  Time Machine will let you restore an individual file or an individual program, without affecting anything else on the computer.  Now that’s cool.

So how do you use Time Machine?

- Well, to start with you need an Apple computer – Time Machine only comes with Mac OS X.

- Second, you need an external HDD – I use my Seagate FreeAgent Desk as my dedicated Time Machine backup drive.  You can use a variety of different external storage devices, including setting aside a partition on a RAID or in your NAS box, or even in your DROBO, but I decided to have a dedicated disk for TM.

-  Third, you’ll have to plug the drive into your Mac (or connect over your wireless network) and open Time Machine – it’ll walk you through the steps of how to format the drive correctly.  They do a good job of holding your hand through it.

And that’s pretty much it.  If you always leave your drive connected (or you’re always connected to your Wifi network) it’ll keep backing you up automatically.  If not, then you’ll get regular reminders that you need to backup your machine.  Plug in and it will back up without any fuss or muss.

One note of caution – if you set it to backup too frequently (like, say, hourly) then you will quickly fill up even a very large HDD.  The Time Machine is smart enough to only note the changes to your computer since you last backup (as opposed to making a complete copy of everything – overkill considering that 90% of your files don’t change much from day to day.)  But still, even those relatively small changes can start to add up quickly, and you will discover that your HDD is full before long.

If I were forced to give Time Machine a numeric rating between 1 and 10, I’d call it a 9.  It’s a great piece of software, it comes free with your Mac (as long as you buy one with OS X or above) and it works perfectly. Huzzah!  Huzzah!  Huzzah for Apple.  :)  (Like they need more kudos, self-inflated as they are.)

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Today 12seconds launched a new app in the iTunes app store. It’s called 12mail, and you can download it from iTunes here.

I know that I’m biased, being that I work with the company and all, but I do believe that this app has incredible potential – it offers a new medium for communication. It’s like video visual voicemail.  It leverages all of your friends in Twitter and Facebook to build your list of “contacts.”   You can then send short videos (twelve seconds long) to those people.  If they also have the 12mail app, they’ll be able to watch the video right there on the phone.  If not, they’ll either a.) receive a DM on Twitter with a link to the video (private) or b.) a wall post on their Facebook profile (public)

Combining the ability to record and send video with the social networks you’ve built up on services like Twitter and Facebook is an excellent move.  And the twelve second limitation on the length of videos works to your advantage on a mobile device.  It’s quick to upload when you’re sending, even over clunky old EDGE.  And it’s very fast to buffer and stream when you’re on the receiving end.

Sol, Jakey, Ethan and the rest of the team have worked really hard to put this app together, and I think the effort was well spent.  A number of different folks in the press and blogosphere have covered the app today, including Cult of Mac, AppleTell, Techcrunch, ReadWriteWeb, Download Squad, and a bunch of others. I have no qualms giving this app a 10 out of 10.  If you think I’m biased, well, you’re right.  Don’t care.

A sample video I shot is below, as is a SRIBD doc that walks through the entire app.  Check ‘em out.

You should get 12mail for your iPhone. on 12seconds.tv

12mail Overview

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On a scale from 1to10, I’m a strong believer in redundancy.

It keeps you alive when you’re setting rock climbing anchors, and it’s extremely valuable when it comes to digitally stored data. I have 2 hard drives inside my PC. The two are mirrored (RAID 1 – see the Wikipedia link above).  Briefly, what this means is that every time I create a file or add a new program on my computer, that data is stored to both HDDs.  Both of the drives in my PC reflect the exact same data (hence the term “mirror.”)  This protects me against mechanical failure (i.e. one hard drive melting down.)  It does not protect against something like, say, a virus or worm.  This is because if it affects one drive, it will also affect the other.   The two are exact mirrors of one another, and reflect the exact same operating system, data, software, etc. So if I fubar one (by installing a corrupt file or a virus) both will be messed up.  But, if one of the disks stops turning, the other one can remain active and continue to run the computer.  This is a type of redundancy which I am very fond of.

Now, if the computer itself catches fire, or if I do somehow install a virus, the redundancy in the RAID is no protection at all.  It’s strictly a backup against mechanical failure of a single drive.   That’s why I also use an  external HDD to store independent backups of important data.  Again, redundancy.  Get it?

Spencer Boerup, a wedding photographer in Phoenix, AZ has a nice post with exhaustive detail on his beliefs in redundancy, and the steps he uses.  If you’ve got 10 minutes, it’s a good read.

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On a scale of 1to10, Google Chrome just got cooler.

This post is off-topic.  Meaning, it’s outside the scope of “storage” month. But I’m excited about a new feature of Google Chrome, and that’s inspired me to write.  M.G. Siegler at Techcrunch wrote a post today about Google Chrome’s latest update to version 3.0.  Chrome is also a little more than a year old – I’ve been using it consistently pretty much that whole time.  I like it a lot.

Chrome 3.0 has made all kinds of performance and benchmarking improvements and upgrades – javascript thingamajigs load waaaay faster than they did before, blah blah blah.  That’s all cool, and I’m glad the browser is better-performing and more reliable now.  But to be truthful I don’t know that much about the technical side of web-browsing, and I don’t want to pretend that I do.  I take it at face value that the performance is now better than it was (seems great to me.)

What does impress and please me is a feature I hadn’t noticed previously – the ability to create application shortcuts out of a webpage.  This is very similar to what Fluid does on the Mac OS, and this is nothing really new.  But it’s cool.  Basically, you can take a website of your choosing, and using the “Control the current page” dropdown at the top right, you can create a shortcut for that website on either the desktop, the start menu, or the quick launch bar.  For instance, I turned Pandora into a shortcut.  This does a couple things:

1. You can launch said webpage as a standalone app, as opposed to a browser tab or browser window

2. The page looks like an app, with not URL bar or other navigation tools

3. If you close your browser, that application stays open

Again, this is very similar to what Fluid does.  And Google did a nice job of incorporating the site’s own iconography and favicons to make the shortcuts look decent.  I like using the quick launch personally, cause I dislike a cluttered desktop.  Oh lord, my OCD is showing.

Fluid rocks, and this little feature is a nice move in a similar direction.  If I gave it a numeric rating, it would be an 8 out 10.

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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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I use Mac Mail.  Not because it’s the best mail client of all time, but because it’s better than most of the other ones I’ve tried on the Mac (Entourage [which is Outlook for the Mac], Thunderbird, Zimbra).  They have major issues.  Mail has the best search, and does a good enough job with everything else.  The attachment issue (it frequently shoves whole docs or picutres into the mail itself) is annoying, but not a big deal to me. But there has been one persistent, annoying, frustrating, stupid issue I couldn’t get past.  Hyperlinking.

Every mail client in the known Universe, even the ones on Arrakis, let you use a simple keystroke to hyperlink to a website within an email.  But not Mac Mail.  It’s such a basic, obvious feature, and something I need to do in virtually every email I send.  And instead of a quick keystroke, I have highligh, edit, link, add link, type link, hit OK.  Every time.  Stupid.

But Andrew just showed me the solution. Many of you probably think it’s obvious, just add a keystroke in sys pref.  Others probably say “Why didn’t you just Google it.”  Well maybe you’re right, I should have figured it out earlier.  But now Andrew has made my world a little better for me, and I appreciate it (and him.)

If you want to be able to create hyperlinks in Mac Mail, look here.  For those who don’t want to click, here’s the easy steps:

1. Open “System Preferences” (from the “Apple” symbol in the top left)
2. Select “Keyboard & Mouse”
3. Select “Keyboard Shortcuts” (third tab, right side top)
4. Click the + symbol to add a new shortcut
5. From dropdown, select “Mail.app”
6. In Menu title type: “Add…”  (no quotes)
7. Assign a keystroke shortcut (I chose Command L)

That’s it.  Quit Mail (if it’s open) and then re-open it.  You should now be able to assign hyperlinks in Mac Mail with keyoard shortcuts.  Thank you Andrew.

BTW, if it doesn’t work, then Andrew is to blame.  FYI.

On a scale of 1 to 10, using keyboard shortcuts to assign hyperlinks in Mac Mail deserves a 10 out of 10.  El yay!

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Apple made landscape work in Safari; if you’re in the browser and have to type (in the URL, or in a form) the keyboard pops up in landscape mode.  This means the keys are bigger, more widely spaced, and significantly easier to tap.  This is good usability.  In either SMS or email mode, I can only use the portrait keyboard.  This is poor usability.  Given the fact that the capability exists, I can’t see any reason not to make the functionality universally available.

Lots of people told me that I’d get used to the keyboard if I gave it enough time.  They were wrong.  It sucks.  It sucked a year and a half ago, and it sucks now too.  Hence my joy, my excitement, my joie de iPhone that Firemail exists.  Firemail is an application available in the App store that lets a user type emails with a landscape keyboard.  Lawdy lawdy, I thought the day would never come.  The folks at Conceited Software are to thank for this handy piece of code.  Let me do so now.  Thank you Conceited Software. Try not to let it go to your head. Pun intended.

Firemail demo on 12seconds.tv

Now, the mechanics of the thing are not entirely ideal.  In order to write these blessedly quick and easy to type emails, you have to load Firemail from your homescreen, not the email app.  When the app opens you will be able to compose a subject and message.  Once done with your composition you can save a draft (called a bookmark) or send to email.  This is great for writing a new email.  But what about replying to old emails?  That too is possible, here’s how:

• Open your email app
• Open an email
• Hit reply
• Hit the home button
• Open Firemail
• Draft your response
• Select “Send to Mobile Mail”
• Boom shaka laka.  Your email is now a reply to the email you were reading before.

I didn’t even know you could do this till I read a couple other reviews of this app.  iPhone Hacks put a great one together, and so did Ben Boychuck at Macworld.   Personally, I think it’s a very strong app, and it has a place on my homescreen.  I do wish it integrated a little more seamlessly with the iPhone email, but it’s a very solid app and allows me to do something that’s frustrated me since my very first week with the iPhone.

The app used to be free – it was free when I downloaded it a couple months ago.  Now they charge 99 cents for it, and I think it’s definitely worth that fee.   It turns iPhone email from something frustrating and terrible into something that’s reasonably not sucky.  If I were forced to give Firemail a numeric rating between 1 and 10, I’d call it a 7.

This post is also available at LIVEdigitally.

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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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My buddy Kurt turned me onto this video when I was down in Phoenix for a meeting.  I’ve since watched it 6 times, emailed it to seventeen people, dugg it, and enjoyed it immensely.   The gist of the video is a call between the sales department and the IT department, also known as Sales Guy vs. Web Dude.  The video is called “The Website Is Down” and can be found at the URL of same name.  I’ve embedded the video here for your convenience:

My favorite part of the exchange is when the IT guy manipulates the exchange server to remove an email that he never read, making it appear as though it had never been sent at all.  If you’ve worked with IT people before, that’s their bread and butter (CYA, always.)  :)  But the entire scenario, from the fact that he uses a Mac, to his switching between apps, to the remote desktop, Linux / Windows virtualizations, Skype telephony and playing Halo on work time are all freaking awesome.

Let’s be clear.  If you’re not somewhat techno-geeky, this will probably not be incredibly amusing to you. There are some funny conversations, but a lot of it will seem boring.  However, if you have even the slightest peripheral interest in computers, IT, and the inanity of some human beings, you’ll find a lot of comedic value in this video.   And almost everyone can find some joy in the final minutes when they’re discussing Chip’s desktop.   Josh Weinberg (the director of the video, and the voice of “Web Dude“) did amazing work here, and I think it’s brilliant.  Johntash, a guy in IT, also thought it was awesome.  That makes him awesome.

If I were forced to give this a numeric rating, I’d call it a nine out of ten.  Great work guys – so awesome.

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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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Wait, hold on.  Let me explain.

While on Facebook, I saw an advertisement related to rock climbing.  I like rock climbing.  So I said to myself: “Why don’t you check that out.”  The ad suggested that the advertisers in question were seeking Beta testers to check out their new rock climbing-based social network.  I then thought to myself: “You’re on a social network right now.  Maybe this one would be cool too.”

So I clicked.  I was taken to a site offering me a free T-shirt to become a beta tester.  Interesting.  Not great.  Just interesting.  That’s a pretty old-fashioned marketing technique for a web 2.0-style site.  But hey, I wear t-shirts all the time.  And clearly these guys are not appealing to Twittering tech geeks (at least, not unless they also climb rocks.)  They are going after a niche (technically, it will have to be a niche within a niche, those who like rock climbing, and who also frequent the internet / social networking world.)  So, they decided to throw some marketing dollars into it.  I sort of get that – I guess.  I mean, they are going after a tough to reach audience.  Kinda.

What really threw me for a loop was the scammy, “sign up for 2 or more credit cards” advertisement I was shown right after I signed up for the Beta.  I gave them my info (email, DOB, gender, the basics), hit submit, and was immediately shown an advertisement displaying an awesome package deal of rock climbing gear, as long as I sign up for at least 2 services, for a fee of no more than $5.  Super ghetto.  Giant turn off.  Totally inappropriate.

I just find the whole thing frankly weird.  Are they trying to make ad money already?   On the signups to the private Beta they haven’t finished offering?  They’re throwing money away on the one hand (paying for ads they don’t really need,) and then trying to re-coup it in a totally inappropriate way on the other (serving creepy, spam ads.)  Here’s what I don’t understand:

• Crankjam is advertising on facebook for beta testers?  $$$
• Crankjam is giving away a free t-shirt for beta testing?  $$$
• Crankjam is pushing credit card schemes (and netflix memberships) after Beta signup?  Too weird.

Now I’m not just trying to be a pill here.  I like rock climbing.  And I like social networking.  I think it could be a great site.  I just don’t understand what they’re doing – seems like they’re robbing Peter to pay Paul.  Why are they buying ads on Facebook to recruit for their private beta?  More importantly, why are they serving spam ads right after.  Here’s some of the things I think they should be doing:

• Use free social media: Twitter, FriendFeed, FB fan pages, Jaiku, Pownce, Message Boards, Discussion Forums, make a funny video on Youtube, create a channel on 12seconds - there’s all kinds of social media and services with which to create community and market yourself.  The key here is to be active in the community, spend time there, follow people, listen to what they say, and make sure they know you’re a real person, not a spam bot.  Then ask them questions.  What do you think of this idea?  Do you know anyone who likes rock climbing?  Get some real market data, and recruit some real Beta testers.
• Partner up with other people – do a little Business Development.  Reach out to the admins at rock climbing forums and retailers – tell them you want to trade some ad space and partner up.  You’re creating a rock climbing social network.  They sell gear to rock climbers (or provide a locale for them to gather and share thoughts.)  It’s a good fit and a win-win situation.
• Contact University groups – every college campus in America has a rock climbing club, rock wall, rock gym, etc.  Every one of those groups has young people who like to climb, every one of which uses the internet on a daily basis.  That’s your target audience.  Recruit them.  Buy them pizza (instead of FB ads) and recruit there.

This is the news announcement they’ve issued, and there’s an excerpt below.  Crankjam is a mass producer of niche social networks based in Columbia, South Carolina.  Lifefitter in turn seems to be a product of another “incubator” called LoudDoor, also based in South Carolina.  Now, the Lifefitter guys seem to sort of “get it.”  They have a blog.  And they’re even writing some posts that express expertise and understanding of their space.  Kudos, that’s sincerely excellent.  They are creating a bunch of niched social networks, online communities for the outdoor (and technologically) minded.  Cool.  Personally I think Ning makes more sense, where existing communities can form their own online social network, but there’s a place for this product too.  It’s even a cool idea.

However, this spammy approach is creepy, up and down. It’s disconcerting.  If I had to give this a numeric rating, on a scale of 1 to 10, I’d call it a 2.  And that’s without ever getting a chance to see the product itself.  Purely based on the experience of finding and signing up for the Beta, I am truly uncomfortable.

New

Lifefitter to release CrankJam, a social network for rock climbers, in private beta.

Columbia, SC: Today, Lifefitter Networks announced CrankJam, a new social network dedicated to the rock climbing community. The site is accepting requests for invitations to the beta program and will be released in private beta within the next 45 days.

“Rock climbing is such an intense sport, it takes a lot of guts to go out and climb all over the world,” said General Manager Bobby Redfern.

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