LIVEdigitally

For some reason it really seemed like this year’s CES has a lot more overlapping events than I remember from previous years, and my evening calendar often appeared more full than the day! Now Microsoft has a pretty decent track record for throwing CES parties, so I knew it was a must-visit (even though HP’s party was also at Pure the previous night, and even though the Best Buy party in 2006 featured the Pussycat Dolls).

At the beginning (well, I guess middle, but we didn’t get there right away) the Pussycat Dolls were on stage doing a whole dance routine. Now I wasn’t previously aware of this, but there are actually two different groups called the Pussycat Dolls - one is the group out of LA, the other are the dancers in Vegas. We had the Vegas crew, and while they weren’t the same ladies from the videos, they certainly weren’t a disappointment. And since I am a giving person, I recorded some video of the event (scroll down if you are losing patience with my prose). The funny moment for me was when a bouncer came up to me, asked if I was videoing, and I said “no, just taking pictures.” It was even funnier because there were at least two dozen phones and cameras all within sight, all recording as well!

I’ve said before that I’m a big fan of Muvee’s AutoProducer software, so as I was thinking about the best way to share the videos I took. I decided to make FIVE (5) different videos and upload them all. The cool part is - I only spent about 10 minutes generating all five videos, thanks to Muvee’s excellent software. And half of the time was just me picking out which themes to try! Now, on to the Muvees…

Version 1: Pro-Very Fast theme, no editing

Version 2: Pro-Very Fast theme, minor editing

Version 3: “Dance Floor” theme

notice the cool pulsing effects? all automatic!
Version 4: “Over the Top” theme

Version 5: basic Pro-Fast theme featuring U2’s “Beautiful Day”

just to show the difference between using different types of music with otherwise the same content
I’ve got a full Muvee review coming soon (and an interview at CES), but make sure you try watching at least a couple of different ones to see the power of the software. Again, I spent less than 10 minutes to create all 5 videos. Not too shabby.

Back to the topic at hand - the party. The DJ was DJ-AM, which wowed Dave, while had me say “him?” All I can say about his spinning was: best music ever. I’ve never seen a room react so positively to a DJ for so long (hours and hours) before. I don’t do as much clubbing as in my younger days (when I did almost no clubbing whatsoever), but this was a seriously impressive night. Click here for more party pix.

I might be incorrect, however, when I point out the irony of the DJ using a Mac to play the music at the Vista-related party…

Well, here we are at the end of 2006 and I thought I’d put together a little summary of my favorite technology of the year.  Now some of this stuff launched commercially prior to 2006, but this is the year I used it the most.  So check out the video, and if you want to read more about the products, the links are below (disclaimer: most links are to Amazon affiliate product listings).

Note: I did forget two things in the video, so I’m adding them here first:

• Best smartphones: T-Mobile Dash and HTC MTeoR
• Brilliant Image: I’ve got a whole review forthcoming, but in a nutshell, you upload a digital photo, they mail you a painting made from the photo.  It might sound odd, but it’s extremely impressive.  Check out the picture on the right for an idea of it. 

Now for the video itself (or click here to view it on YouTube):

The items in the video:

• The laptop: Vaio SZ series (you can read my review of the SZ160 here)
• The wireless mouse: Gyration
• The book: hackoff.com
• The remote: Harmony 880 (my review here)
• The camera: Canon sd800is (honorable mention for really impressive low-light pictures: Fuji F30)
• The backpack: Pacific Design Ruckus
• The best in convergence: Sonos (review) & Slingbox
• The video games: Godfather and Battle of Middle Earth II
• The inflight power adapter: Teleadapt
• The GPS unit: Nuvi 350
• The fabric (shmatta): Microfiber Electronics Cleaning Cloth
• The phone/PDA: PPC 6700
• The headphones: Shure e4c (review) and e500PTH (review)

Looking forward to the technology of 2007.  I’m curious as to how many of these products I’ll be using one year from today…

This Thanksgiving was a little different from usual, not only because I wasn’t at home, but because it included some Wii action!! The boy and I headed over to his friend’s house to do the turkey thing, and what sweet diversion should he provide us with while the bird finished cooking, but a pair of Wiimotes and his system all ready to go.

Ladies and gentlemen, the draw of the Mii channel is inescapable. The urge to create a pile of horrific little monsters is irresistible. Making yourself, sure, just a minute, but making Martians? That is the true work of art. Then, after viewing Missing in Action en español, we were inspired to create the perfect Chuck Norris. Yes, celebrities are obviously common fodder for the Mii machine. I’ve seen several versions of Jesus already, as well as a couple Michael Jacksons. The version of Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV seen here was done with Joystiq’s mock-up Mii generator.

But wait, this is a video game system, right? There must be like, games or something, right? Right! Twilight Princess, you can almost take for granted, at least if you’re a Zelda fan. On this particular Wii outing we had on hand a copy of Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz. By this time we had been joined by a couple others, and proceeded to have a 4 way mini-game battle.

This is where my reservations start to come back out. I want a Wii, I really do, but I’m still a little shaky on the motion sensor controls. The more I see, the more at ease I become, and maybe there is just a bit of a learning curve. I’ve heard that Twilight Princess plays wonderfully and there is no reason to go back to a GameCube pad, but other games I’m not so sure about yet. For instance, here we were motoring around in hovercrafts, flying through the air, running, throwing darts, all with the sincerest of physical effort. Either that or we were hovering straight into the wall, falling out the air, slowing to a crawl, missing the board completely, and cursing the controls the whole time. Or if we weren’t cursing them we were wondering why we were doing it at all. Well, to look silly and laugh at each other, of course! Dying was frustrating, but at least everyone thought it was silly. I’m worried that more game will be less like Twilight Princess and more like this, games where the controls aren’t so great, but it’s still fun with friends and you can just laugh at how bad you are. As the console ages, people will get the hang of what works and what doesn’t , so things should turn out ok.

This isn’t to say that there is no precision involved right now. The dart game is a pretty good example. Obviously you have to be aiming at the TV (I.e. the motion sensing strip, which is somewhere around there) and to help you do that (so your dart appears on screen) they’ve engineered a box into the air so when you move too far out of range you’ll feel it and come back. That really does work for the most part. That said, just aiming inside the box won’t get you points. You still have to throw the thing, and I was really bad at that.

Funny thing: after all that, I think my favorite part of the gaming portion of the evening was spent on Bomberman 3 for the Turbografx-16 downloaded via the Virtual Console. We had all four remotes plus a GameCube controller plugged in for a five-player destruct-o-thon. Yay, retro! I think we played a three-to-win match on every map.

Ultimately, I think my advice would be to get a Wii, get Zelda, figure out which mini-game collection sounds the most fun to you, and grab that, as well. Have fun, and then while waiting for the next must-have game, settle into the Virtual Console and enjoy!

The single best turkey I’ve ever made, eaten, smelled, eaten, and eaten.  Wow.  The only one I’ve made that looked better was the 25-pounder I cooked with my cousin a few years back, and while that was tasty, this year’s knocked it out of the park.

Now I’ve been posting a lot of recent stuff on non-techie topics, and I’m feeling a little guilty about that, so I’m going to amend for it all here.  This post also contains vlogging, a quick intro to Muvee, and my first use of Stage6 from DivX (quick disclaimer: I am doing some consulting work for DivX, although it is wholly unrelated to turkey cooking).

First up: the vlogging.  I used my trusty Canon SD700is (recently rendered obsolete with the SD800is) to do all the video work.  Sure I could’ve used my DV camera, but I didn’t care that much about the final video quality, and didn’t want to spend all the time downloading the video from the miniDV tape.  Also, my wife and I did all camera work, no tripods, microphones, or anything fancy was involved. 

Next comes the editing.  My first video project, I did all the editing myself.  From the notes I took, I spent 13 minutes importing and editing clips, 20 minutes working with transitions, photos, and titles/credits, then 11 minutes to export the video, for a total of 44 minutes.  You can see the video here (running time 4:50), I feel it’s the most informative, yet dullest of the batch. 

What’s this? Batch?  Yes, that’s correct, I have created multiple videos.  The next three were all done using Muvee AutoProducer, which is one of the most impressive pieces of software I’ve seen in years.  I’ll do a full review shortly, and this is not the best demonstration of its power, but I wanted to do an easy “compare and contrast.”  It took 6 minutes to import all content and create titles/credits and pick a style for the video. It took another 4 minutes to analyze the media files (a one-time only requirement), and I had my first video ready.  Over the next 10 minutes I experimented with different styles until I had the one I liked, then waited 13 minutes while it exported the video, for a total time investment of 33 minutes. 

The really impressive part was I then spent less than 10 minutes to preview a dozen more styles, and generated two additional videos in another 10 minutes.  To see the fruits of my labor (and you should watch one of them in contrast to my manual editing work), watch style one, two, or three (I recommend #1).  As you’ll see, all three are more entertaining and upbeat than the manually produced version.  Muvee is awesome, and I’ll really prove it in the next few weeks with a detailed review.

For my last tech experiment of the day, rather than go with YouTube, I decided to try out Stage6 for my video-sharing needs.  Creating a profile was simple and took a few seconds (although I decided to actually flush it out with all the personal details too, but that was not a requirement), but uploading a video wasn’t as straightforward as I’d hoped. 

First, I was required to download an uploader (although I think there was a plug-in version as well, but I may have accidentally missed that), then I realized my videos weren’t in DivX format already, a requirement of the site.  I proceeded to download Dr. DivX, after which I was prompted to download a DivX codec update.  Pain in the rear, however, Dr DivX worked really quickly and flawlessly, and coincidentally included a built-in uploader to Stage6.

Several minutes later, I began uploading videos, and am now officially a member of the long tail.  And I didn’t even have to use clips from SNL or the Daily Show to participate!  Ni-ice.  As you noticed from the post, the only way to really share videos from Stage6 is via linking or email. 

I’d like to see them step up the features for bloggers by including some HTML sharing code, embedding tools, and thumbnails.  Also, while I know the codec is huge in Europe (just like David Hasselhoff), I am curious to hear back from readers if there were any issues playing the videos

Anyhow, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, full of turkey and techie, just like me! 

My trusty LG VX6100 (aka the HabsPhone) is dying.  Well, the battery is dying, and the phone might be on its way out as well - tbd.  I decided rather than buy a new phone, I’d just grab a new battery.  Went to the Verizon store - $49.99 no joke!  I googled “VX6100 battery” and intentionally clicked on one of the sponsored ads.  Did a couple of price comparisons, and ended up getting two batteries with overnight shipping for $45 all-in.I then googled “cellphoneshop.net review” and most of the reviews were again positive (for the most part).  I figured “what the heck” and bought it.  I immediately sent off an email to their sales email address asking them to confirm it would arrive by today (I’m hopping on a plane tomorrow, and can’t deal with 20 minutes of talk time anymore).

The email bounced.  Uh oh.

But then I noticed it was a typo, and sent off another one.  This one burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp got through.  To my huge surprise, I received a polite email which informed me the batteries would arrive not just on time, but a day early, and then 30 minutes later an email arrived with a tracking number.  Wonderful.

Funny enough, I actually didn’t want the package to arrive early, since I knew I wouldn’t be around to receive it yesterday.  That afternoon, I received another email from cellphoneshop with the fedex info and alerting me to the fact that the shipment wasn’t delivered properly.  This is A+ customer service in my book.

The icing was on the cake today when I plugged the batteries in and they worked just fine.  Good job cellphoneshop.net, thanks for your service.  You might want to consider a new domain name, but that’s just me musing…

This is a few years old, but makes me laugh out loud every time I see it. Watch and enjoy.

Want a surefire way to make the best headphones on the market even better?  Easy, add a mike.  Confused?  Well, Shure (the makers of my favorite E4c and runner-up E2c headphones) did just that, and believe it or not, it all makes perfect sense.It turns out you can divide people into one of two camps when it comes to headphones: innies and outies.  Innies are the people who enjoy wearing in-ear headphones, the ones that go inside the ‘lobe and pump the sound right into your brain.  Outies prefer on-ear headphones, such as the Bose QuietComforts, which sit on top of your ears.  I’ve tried quite a few of both, in a variety of situations, and am quite certain of the fact that I’m an innie.  I like being able to fall asleep with the buds in my ear, I find the Bose set makes my head get a little, sweaty, and I find they simply can’t block out the sounds of a wailing child three rows behind me.

Until a short time ago, the Shure E4c’s were my favorite headphones.  I’d even tried the E5c’s, and while the sound quality was stunning, they just weren’t comfortable for a 13-hour flight to Hong Kong.  The E4c’s were the king of the innies in my world, with only one major nag: the process of removing/inserting them is unpleasant to repeat on a frequent basis.  Welcome to the Shure E500PTH’s.

Packaging
As with all Shure products, the headphones are nicely packaged inside a small box.  The box has an inner metallic shell with a very nice finish, and inside that shell is a molded foam case to hold all the pieces.  Nice, simple, luxurious, and not overly wasteful.

 

Contents
When you buy the E500PTH’s you receive:

• The headphones
• The microphone
• A mini-extension cable
• A 1/8″ to 1/4″ adapter
• Oval carrying case
• Lots of extra earbuds

   

Headphones
I’m going to stay a little light on discussing the headphones themselves this time.  Others like Gary Krakow have already reviewed the overall sound quality of them (here’s Gary’s take on the E4c’s, and he’s about 100x a discerning listener compared to me) and CNet made them an Editor’s Choice.  Suffice it to say - they sound as good, possibly better, than the rest of the Shure lineup.  You’ll have nothing to complain about when it comes to the sound quality, be it at home, on a plane, or anywhere else you are using the E500PTH’s.  They sound great.

 

Microphone
Now this is where the E500PTH’s get interesting.  Their noise-cancelling capabilities are tremendous, but as I said above, taking out and shoving in little rubber buds in your ear every time the person next to you wants to share some little detail of their life and why they love their home town can get, well, annoying.  And I have a hunch quite a few of Shure’s customers shared that sentiment with the company, since the E500’s specifically address that situation. 

Through some quite clever ingenuity (in my opinion), Shure added a microphone and a little on/off switch to the headphones.  When switched “on” (which does require a single AAA battery), the E500’s effectively mute the incoming audio source, and amplify the microphone.  This translates to: when you turn them on, you can hear the outside world again.  There’s actually a little volume control dial to adjust the level of amplification, and while it took me a little tweaking and a lot of getting used to, I finally got it right.

The next time the flight attendant walked by my seat (my original fiddling with them was on a plane), I was able to order my drink (and, of course, thank her for it), without whispering or screaming at the top of my lungs.  Again - it takes some getting used to, but once you’ve tried it for a few minutes, you’ll find yourself hitting the switch and carrying on a conversation as if you weren’t wearing the headphones at all. Very very impressive!

   

Overall
I have only a single annoyance with the Shure E500PTH’s, which is the size of the carrying case.  Granted, I was spoiled by the “fits in the palm of my hand” size of the E4c’s, and it’s still nothing compared to the mega-case which carries the Bose QuietComfort 2’s (forget the 3’s, they make ya puke).  So chalk that up as the only negative thing I have to say, otherwise, the E500’s are a winner.  Another nice touch is if the microphone battery dies, the headphones still work (unlike most over-the-ear noise reduction headphones).They are now, in fact, a permanent addition to my laptop case, and should be in yours as well.  However, they do cost over $400 (Amazon link), so if you already have headphones you like, you can opt to purchase the “push-to-hear” component instead (Shure site).

Did all my research.  Walked less than three blocks.  Filled out the way-too-confusing ballot.  Done.Your turn.

PS - don’t forget the Polling Place project (two pix) and if you have a video-enabled phone, Veek your Vote!

Finally!  I’ve wanted to use that subject line since I started the blog (yeah, I know others have used it too, but I discovered that after the fact)!  Well, I made it to the Digital Life show in New York City this week, took a few pics, and here’s the report…

The show opened on Thursday, and even before the doors opened, a huge line built for people who really wanted to get in.  This topic will come up a few times, but I think a lot of industry people miss the fact that this is an exciting show for consumers. Quite a few of my colleagues mentioned to me they didn’t see anything new, or there wasn’t much exciting gadgetry on display, but they forget that the average person out there does not see nearly the same stuff people like me get to see.  Show someone an HTC Excalibur (T-Mobile Dash) and they typically ask what is that???  I’ve read about it for months, and started using one weeks ago.  That’s what makes Digital Life fun - you get to see consumers’ reactions to the same technology that’s become almost mundane for us industry types.

That said, I personally wasn’t over-the-top excited as Barry Myers (the big brains behind the show) wished Sonic the Hedgehog a “Happy 15th Birthday” but a lot of the kids around sure got a kick out of it.  Sonic’s aging well, by the way, doesn’t look a day over 12.

 

The show was large (not CEDIA-large, but large enough), about 2/3 of the floor was dedicated to booths, the other 1/3 for gaming tournaments. Looked like the kids were really enjoying the gaming, again my assumption is that this was one of the first times most people actually got to play Xbox 360 in high-def (well, other than those in debt of course) or see the PS3 in person.  I even saw an area for “amateur” gaming, but judging by my ridiculously poor performance in Halo 2 against my 11-year-old cousin, I ran for the hills.

 

Many larger companies had booths, including Intel, Microsoft, HP, Alienware, Toshiba, Best Buy, etc.  It’s interesting to watch these companies try to learn and react to Digital Life in their attempts to build the right booths.  Toshiba’s booth looked like the same thing they use for CES, with the addition of a “Deal or No Deal” game (called “Mobile or No Mobile”), and Intel’s booth was all about futuristic tech.  AMD had The Quadfather (ugh - come on AMD, we like you and root for you, but nobody wants puns!), and HP had some medley of printers, displays, and pink stuff. I think Microsoft did a great job at showing off the two things the average show attendee was likely most interested in: XBox and Vista.  Sure they had some other demos incorporated as well, but the messaging was clearly consumer-driven.  Good job there.

 

Some of my booth/visit highlights:

• WowWee (the makers of the Robosapien product line) had a simple booth showing the robots in all their AI glory.  I really like this company, and am looking forward to seeing how they expand their product line next year. 
• White Box Robotics was located in the Ziff-Davis “digital lounge” where they were showing their $5000 “PC-BOT.”  My friend Steven Jones (from TechLore/Capable) thinks it’s a wonderful idea, but I’m mixed.  There’s clearly no consumer application here, so we’ve got to look at it as an industrial device.  I just don’t see why I need a “robot” that is really a computer on wheels with some sensors when I can diversify that into one computer (or even more than one) and distributed sensors and networked cameras.  With the “robot” approach, I have a very expensive thing to fix when it breaks, when it’s diversified I can cheaply and easily replace broken modules.  But maybe I’m not seeing the bigger picture here, any comments on this from the peeps out there?
• UT Starcom was, unfortunately, not showing the SMT5800, but they did have this waterproof cell phone instead.  Meh.  I guess it’s good for all those people who keep dropping their phones in the toilet, or maybe my friend Ben who thinks his phone is a good baby chew toy…
• Slappa showed all their awesome CD/DVD cases and laptop bags.  I really like this company and think they make some of the best products in both categories.  Got a chance to talk to them, nice people.  Check out their latest entry, a CD case specifically designed for DJ’s (not 100% sure if that link is right).  Want to know why it’s smart/cool?  They worked with DJ’s to design it.  It’s super easy to design products in a vacuum (Sony Network Walkman, hello?), and I respect the smart companies who understand their customers and target markets.
• Mio Technology showed a few of their “Digital Walkers” - GPS systems with a few extra frills.  I like the user interface and the well-done integration with Windows Mobile, but (as I mentioned to their reps), I really want to see them throw the whole phone integration in place.  Even as an unlocked GPRS phone, they could get a lot of traction in an HTC/Imate-like approach to the world.  Keep an eye on em (although since I still haven’t played with one, my Garmin Nuvi 350 is still my personal pick).

My personal “best in show” pick absolutely goes to the Sony Reader product.  Now I’m not saying to rush out and buy one yet, as I haven’t used it personally, but it is just soooo pretty.  Their user interface is a bit clunky (which, being a Sony product, might be a little redundant), and the buttons don’t feel right, but the size and screen are otherwise perfect.  It’s light-weight enough to hold comfortably, but I would love to see them add a simple strap on the back to easily keep it in your hand (would be very helpful for the people I know who fall asleep while reading).  Most important is the screen - it looks like paper.  It might be a generation or two until the product really works as it should (tbd), but it’s an amazing thing to see.

 

My last batch of pictures are all a little more personal… First, Michael Gartenberg gets interviewed where he is most likely prognosticating on gadgets, gizmos, and whatnots.  I didn’t see the taping, but I’ve got to assume he received no fewer than 7 calls on his 3 phones during the 5 minute shoot.

Next there were a couple of Slingbox demos.  First, we had the Slingbox PRO on display in the ZD digital lounge (hooked up to a new Digeo Moxi box).  Also I spent some time with Matt Whitlock (from SlingCommunity and TechLore) who interviewed Brian Jaquet (Sling Media’s Director of PR) about the upcoming SlingPlayer Mac software.

I also got to walk around with Dave Zatz for a bit (read his moblog of the show here). Highlight moment was goign to the iBloks booth, where we watched a couple of go-go dancers shaking their stuff.  I perched in front of the booth while Mr. Z walked into the middle, and we snapped a fantastic pic of the dancers trying to figure out what the heck he was doing there.  CLASSIC!

Lastly, my Dad happened to be in New York at the same time, so I had him come by the show for an hour or so and we walked the floor together.  This was especially fun for me, as I rarely get the opportunity to really show him anything about my industry.  Sure he knows what a Slingbox is, and he gets that a lot is afoot in the digital media space, but this was his first tech trade show.  He was genuinely interested in walking around and seeing new stuff, and that experience was really insightful for me to watch.

I’ll reiterate what I said at the beginning of this post:  DigitalLife is a great consumer show.  If you are an industry guy or gal, it’s not going to show you new tech.  Instead, you’ll see your customers’ reactions to the products you build.  And that, my dear readers, is truly priceless.

So the scenario looks a little something like this: Having Geek Dinner 2 tonight and needed to find a place to seat 8 people, preferably in a quieter location where we can chat.  Gotta find a spot.  Where do I go? OpenTable.com.

I know they’ve been around since 1998, but they made it through the dot-collapse, and while I won’t say they vanished, they aren’t ‘exciting and new’ anymore.  But I also know that there’s a lot of folks out there who haven’t heard of them, so I figured I’d give them a little shout-out.

Bottom line is it’s about the easiest site in the world to use.  No need to register (although you can and there is a good incentive to do so, which I’ll mention in a moment), you can just start searching.  For tonight’s dinner, I clicked on San Francisco and was given a very simple search page.

I selected a few options, including party size and price point, and clicked Search.  One really nice option in their search system is grouping - most search engines require you to pick one or another option (e.g. all 2-star restaurants), but they intelligently include grouped options (e.g. up to 2-star restaurants).

Results come back quite quickly, and are presented in a very appealing layout, with simple easy-to-use search and sort options.  Not only that, in addition to searching your target time, the OpenTable system automatically displays Earlier and Later options for each result:

I picked my choice, and gave my phone number and email address.  I was also able to add comments (such as “we’d like a private room if possible”) which go straight to the maitre d.  Also, I’m given the option to register, which gets me “opentable points”.  Again, if I don’t want to register, I’m all done, reservation made, voila.

For every reservation you make (and keep - because anyone can make reservations, but it’s keeping them that matters), you get 100 points.  Every time you hit 2000 points, you can get a dining check for $20.  That’s it, no fees, no nothing. 

That’s it - I guess I’m 8 years late on reviewing the service (although I’ve been using it for 3), but hey, I’m not always the first on the block for things.  I would like to see a tighter integration with CitySearch (or, yawn, Yelp, I guess), since they have that relationship already.  Would be nice to see instant reviews, recommendations, etc all on the same place, but hey, I can always open another window or tab, right?

I wonder if I need a “food” category?

Not long ago I started noticing the option to log in to the new Beta version of Blogger. At first I was unsettled because when I did, none of my blogs were actually…there. However, my fears were assuaged when I was told that this is just the beta process and that eventually my blogs and I would be invited to switch over.

Now that time has come! As of yesterday I changed over, so I can take advantage of all the new features and upgraded bits. My regular blog hasn’t really changed much yet, but I made a test blog which you can refer to as you continue reading.

For starters, there is no more publishing screen with that slowly increasing percentage that FINALLY reaches 100. The new process is called “dynamic serving” and is much quicker. Instead of html pages that just sit around until you post or whatnot, they are created for readers straight from the database every time. The database can apparently be updated much faster. To me, making pages from scratch every time SOUNDS like it would take longer than just updating the html. In practice, however, it’s easy to see that this is not the case. It is indeed noticablely speedier. Just goes to show that I am no techie!

It is also a lot easier to customize the layout. In fact, their new system is CALLED “Layouts.” The idea here is that rather than having to mess with html to create things like a link list or a place for a picture to go, etc, you can use the new customization tools. It really is a lot simpler; I’m pretty sure anyone could get the hang of it right away. Your template, instead of being a big scrolly window of html, is now just a box with other boxes arranged inside. You can drag the boxes around to put them where you like or add more boxes. For instance, you can put your link list at the bottom after your entries, your “About me” section at the top, and add other features such as lists of favorite things (or random things…) anywhere you want. No more worrying about code, unless you’re just that advanced and really want to, in which case there is that option as well.

Another nifty editing trick is that if you are suddenly struck with the urge to add a new movie to your list of favorites, you can just click on the handy wrench-and-screwdriver icon next to the list on your blog page when you’re logged in. This will bring up the box just like it would if you were working on it in your template. There is also a little pencil icon next to the permalinks for more immediate post-publication fixes.

So far, all these features (and more, such as Live Journal-esque privacy management) have me pretty impressed with the improvements. The people at Blogger are committed to an ongoing update process, so we can all look forward to further tweaks and additions.

Due to my job, my blog, and well, me, I have a tendency to play with a lot of different gadgets, especially new cell phones. The term ’smartphone’ gets tossed around a lot, basically covering any phone that does more than just flip open and dial numbers. To me, a smartphone should be a smart phone - it should have enough intelligence to offer me useful services that meet my needs.

Some people want 3D gaming, some people want social networking, me, I want productivity with a little dose of entertainment on the side. I need access to my email, access to browse Web pages, Solitaire, and SlingPlayer Mobile - that’s the cake. Everything after that is, well, icing. After using the HTC MTeoR for a few weeks, I think it’s more like a cookies & cream (with real Oreos) ice cream cake with a layer of mint chocolate chips, covered in hot fudge, and a nice dollop of whipped cream on top. Okay, it’s just a phone, but it’s the best darn smartphone I’ve ever used.

HTC is unquestionably producing the hottest phones on the market today and their roadmap is so far ahead of the curve that it almost seems fictitious, only they keep shipping more and more cool stuff (like the upcoming Excalibur, which, trust me, is going to be huge)! The MTeoR is a phone that recently started shipping, and most importantly for the company, is their first foray with their own brand. In the past, their phones were typically OEMed (resold) by other companies, ranging from Sprint and Verizon to QTek, UTStarcom (the company who bought Audiovox - thanks Mike) and others.

The first thing you notice right away when you pick up the MTeoR is how well weighted it is. Some have called it heavy, but I think it’s exactly right. You’ll also notice the high quality of the materials used. Everything about it feels well-polished and refined - this is not a junky piece of plastic, this is a phone for the professional. The buttons and keypad also feel right, there’s never a question as to whether or not you properly pushed in a button, you can feel everything you do.

Also, the front cursor/joystick is centered well in the phone, so when you hold it in the palm of your hand, you can easily navigate the Windows Mobile (SmartPhone edition) user interface. The only thing I don’t like about the button arrangement on the MTeoR is there is a button for videocalling, a feature I find is a bit of a waste. I’d much rather have an extra button that is user-programmable than the forced-fit setup the device has. Also, instead of a jog-wheel (like a Crackberry) it has a scroller on the left side of the phone, but it really doesn’t feel as satisfying as a wheel does.

The MTeoR is a very well-sized phone. While I like the PPC6700 as a mobile organizer, it’s too big to fit in a pocket and be comfortable. The MTeoR happily coexists with my keys, wallet, etc. In fact, it’s probably only about one-third the mass and footprint of the 6700.

I believe one of the big changes in phones and convergence in the next year is going to focus on the cameras. Until very recently, most cameraphones peaked at about .6MP, which is barely enough to be viewable on a computer screen, let alone printable. The MTeoR actually has two cameras, with the rear one offering 1.3MP pictures. This is key, because once you hit above 1MP, you can actually watch and share the photos in an enjoyable way, and they do more than just photo-caller-ID! The next few pictures were taken with a few different settings. If I have any real complaint, it’s the lack of a flash. As an aside, I also think the camera has too many features, including digital zoom, sepia and B&W modes, and various ISO settings, all of which are pretty much useless at this stage (but will probably be a requirement within two years).

The second camera is located on the front of the unit, and takes sub-0.5MP pictures and is primarily for video-calls. Utterly useless in my book.

For one more demonstration of the camera in action, take a look at the pictures below, one taken with the MTeoR, the others with my friend’s 7MP Panasonic Lumix.

Windows Mobile Smartphone edition is typically the poor, unwanted stepchild of PocketPC, as the lack of touchscreen and quick functionality is typically a big drag (although if you are used to flip phones or BlackBerry’s, it can be a big jump up, depending on your particular needs). The MTeoR features three screens of settings pages for you to configure your mobile settings. While you can customize quite a few options, I found it quite glaring that I couldn’t remap any of the hardware buttons. I’m sure there’s some third-party application I could try out, but I think this should be built-into the phone.

As an organizer, it’s not nearly as slick as the PocketPC phones or even the Motorola Q with its keyboard. That said, I was able to surf through some Web sites, and browse and compose emails as well. Actually, I found the T-9 implementation on the MTeoR was extremely well done, with a perfect integration with the Windows Mobile OS to allow for rapid autocomplete and suggestions. In fact, once you get the hang of quickly swapping between ABC and T-9, and have a good feel for the keypad, you can type pretty fast. After some practice I was SMSing faster than a 12-year-old kid playing Dance Dance Revolution.

Additionally, the MTeoR has built-in UMTS support, which allows for transferring data at close to 2Mbps. This is key as we look to the future of mobile devices, with better Web browsing, real-time data access, and, of couse, entertainment applications.

There are exactly three entertainment applications (not including some simple gaming) I want to have on my mobile phone:

1. Pandora or Rhapsody access - get either my library or my stations, any time. Goodbye iPod.
2. Sonos control - if my mobile was a Sonos remote (and even better: playback zone), I’d be quite near heaven.
3. SlingPlayer Mobile - okay, I’m biased here, but using my mobile to watch my TV when in a taxi or in a long line at a Starbucks is just sweet.

The first two don’t exist in this context yet, but the third does. While I was in Sweden and Hong Kong last month I had the chance to use SlingPlayer Mobile with the UMTS connection, and it was pretty amazing. I was consistently watching (and controlling) my home DVR at or near 30 fps (frames per second), with a great picture. The screen is extremely bright, and sized nicely with 320×240 resolution (when rotated 90 degrees). The performance overall was great, and left me a bit jealous with the connection quality we get here in the US.

I was thoroughly impressed with the HTC MTeoR. In fact, if it were available with CDMA (I’m a Verizon customer), I’d probably adopt it as my primary phone. For anyone interested in a smartphone that easily fits in your pocket, has full access to all email and data services, and looks and feels great, I have to recommend you check it out. It’s absolutely LD Approved!

Some other useful links:

• Bengalboy review of the MTeoR with a bikini-clad model - lots of pictures, mostly PG-13
• Detailed HTC MTeoR specifications
• Two posts (here and here) on HTC’s roadmap