LIVEdigitally

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Suunto Core Wristop Computer on 12seconds.tv

This review is also posted on 1to10reviews.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I guess the morals of today’s story are:

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

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

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

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

Awesome awesome awesome.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mazel Tov!

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

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

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

Just finished replacing my stolen hardware with the brand-spankin new Canon SD850is.  I had actually purchased the SD800is last week, but just before breaking the 15-day-return seal from Best Buy, I did a little homework to discover the 850 was showing up “mid-June”.  And with my typical “must-have-it-now” obsessive nature, I started calling CompUSA, Best Buy, Circuit City, and the local Wolf Camera every day until last night.

It’s a 8-megapixel point-and-shoot camera with 4x optical zoom, facial recognition, and image stabilization technologies.  In other words, it’s pretty much the top point-and-shoot camera on the market right now, and while I’m rarely one to get “the best”, I love the Canon SD line (ever since the SD100 I had, which was, also, stolen), and I figured I might as well pick up the latest & greatest since insurance is covering it anyway.  Not to mention the fact that it is the technical replacement for the SD700is I used to have (the SD800is is technically a separate line, as it features a wideangle lens instead).

So far, the picture quality looks great, and like my old 700, it’s a very fast, very easy to use camera.  The speed in this case matters, as the total time from pushing power until taking a picture is under 2 seconds, and in continuous mode it seems to get up to about 4-5 shots per second.  Not like my first-gen Kodak digital camera, with 3+ seconds bootup plus a good second or two just to click and shoot. 

Eight megapixels is a grand amount for me, I can do all sorts of wonderful cropping and whatnot and still have printable photos.  Like the 700is, this unit also has 4x zoom, and again, I’m very impressed with the quality.  This is probably the point in the review where die-hard digital camera aficionados are rolling their eyes, so if that’s you, head on over to DPreview.com for a much more technical, in-depth overview.

Also new to the 850 is a lot more options in the menus.  First up, the vestigial “Send-to-printer” button is now programmable – I set it to go straight into movie mode.  Next, there’s a lot of categorization, basic editing, and red-eye features built-into the unit – I haven’t tried them all out yet, but it seems like it’s fairly powerful, yet in Canon-style, not too complicated to use.

Last but not least is the continued inclusion of a viewfinder, which is really handy on very bright days.  I don’t mind sacrificing a little screen real estate for it.  I do really like the facial recognition technology.  If you haven’t seen it in action, it puts little white boxes around every face it “sees” and uses them for autofocus.  Very cool.  More of my pix are on flickr. So, to summarize:

Pros

• Lots of features AND…
• Easy to use
• 8 megapixels
• 4x optical zoom
• Fast shutter speed

Cons

• Pricey
• One of the larger point-and-shoot cameras

If you have $399 to shell out, I definitely recommend the SD850is.  If you want to save a little, pick up a 700 or 800 (although I’d avoid the 750, 900 or 1000 – terrible naming system) – you can still find them in plenty of spots (all links are to Amazon product pages).

I try not to just gush about products I like, because just about everything has a fault somewhere. Sometimes however, I use something that I find is leaps and bounds better designed than others in its class. Some of my absolute favorite gadgets in recent memory include Sonos, TiVo series 1 (because 1 was ahead of its time and 2 and 3 are both good, but not awe-inspiring), Slingbox (ok, not fair, I’m biased, I admit it completely), my first generation Toshiba Tecra laptop, and now, the Pacific Design Ruckus Laptop Backpack. I like it so much that I made a video showing off its capabilities (running time 2:53):

Some highlights of why I think this bag’s so great:

• It’s a comfortable backpack with enough room to fit all the stuff I carry around frequently.
• The laptop area is sectioned off from the rest of the bag, which simplifies removing my computer when I need it (really nice touch for going through airport security).
• Lots of sectioned pockets for things like: iPod, cell phone, sunglasses, business cards, pens, extra cables, etc.
• Special pouch just for the laptop’s AC adapter.
• Stylish enough (for me) that I can carry it casually, yet still walk into a business setting and not feel like a goofball (other than for obvious reasons).

As far as laptop backpacks go, the Ruckus Laptop Backpack is my #1 pick, and I don’t see anything taking it’s place anytime soon. I do have a new messenger bag to try out, but that’s a whole ‘nother category in my opinion. So for $69.95, you can pick one up here, because it’s most definitely LD Approved!

If you’ve owned a digital camera for a few years, you are probably like the rest of us, accumulating a ton of digital pictures (after editing, I still had over 200 from my week in Mexico), maybe emailing/sharing them online, occasionally printing a few, or making a coffee mug or a t-shirt once in a while.  If you’re a little ahead of the curve, you’re probably starting to consider purchasing a digital picture frame this or next year.  But at the end of the day, most of them are sitting on a hard drive, and if you’re smart about it, backed up in more than one location.  I found one interesting new service that’ll let you take those pictures a little further than you’ve probably considered in the past, Brilliant Image.  They take your digital pictures and turn them into pieces of art.

I was able to try out placing a sample order, and I’ll start by saying I’m quite happy with the results.  As you’ll see by their online order form, there are quite a few different options, so you can have your own creative expression of what you want to make.  While the form looks complex, it’s pretty straightforward.  Step one – select a photo.  I picked one of my wedding pictures – since our photographer was all-digital (which I can’t recommend highly enough), everything he took was extremely high quality, so I wanted to see what “the best” would look like.  You can either upload the photo or mail it to them separately (you can even mail a printed picture if you want).

Step two – pick your style.  I went with the “gallery wrap”.  There are tons of options, depending on the size of what you want, including square, rectangular, or rounded options.  Also, you can pick from a variety of different frames, all with different prices.

Step three – choose effects.  For a small additional fee, they can retouch your photos, create collages or add effects.  You can also go black&white or sepia for no extra charge.

Step four – place your order.  The total fee for the option I selected would normally be about $75 plus shipping, although some options are much more expensive.  For example, the 30″x40″ Mahogany Black with a High Res proof is over $450.  But hey, it’s art, right?

Mine showed up about 10 days later, well-packaged (see the photo above).  When I opened it, I was stunned by the effect.  It really looked like someone had painted the picture!  Maybe I am impressed too easily, maybe other folks are used to this, but it was extremely compelling in my opinion.  Take a look at some of these pictures and the zoomed-in details I took.  There’s the canvas, and there’s no pixelization whatsoever. 

It’s definitely more expensive “photo printing” service than anything out there (although SmugMug most certainly comes close for reasons I still cannot fathom), but then again, these aren’t just glossy photos. This looks, feels and possibly tastes (didn’t really try that one) like art.

If you want to add a little class or a touch of art to your home, and you want to use your own photos to do it, I highly recommend Brilliant Image’s services.  They were professional and easy to work with, and provided a product that was better than I was expecting.  I did ask their recommendation for megapixels to make a photo “paintable” and they recommend 4MP for “most reasonably sized paintings” (more details here). 

Whether for you or as a gift, they are most assuredly “LD Approved” and my painting is hanging on the wall as you walk into my apartment (you can see a few more pictures here).  It consistently gets a “that’s cool” when friends visit.

UPDATE: They’re offering a little promo to LIVEdigitally readers, simply enter the code “LIVDIG” for 10% off your order!