LIVEdigitally

I purchased an iPad on day one (roughly minute 3), without much assurance as to how or why I’d use it, or even if it would be a “keeper” in my digital lifestyle.  Here’s a recap of my feelings over the past two weeks:

Day one.
Let’s be honest, the first day of any new toy is either “wow this is awesome” or “gosh I’m disappointed”.  Most products don’t get well-tested in their first few hours of use, and it’s generally hard to evaluate the real-world practicality of any device.  For example, a digital camera will take good pictures, but you might not try it in a fast-action setting; similarly a GPS device will get you to your first destination, but you won’t evaluate how rapidly it finds the signal when you are lost up in Tahoe.  My day one was a lot of fun.  I didn’t really “do anything” with the iPad, other than try downloading stuff, typing on the keyboard, doodling in one of the (way too many) doodle apps.  Good times.

Week one.
Within three days I had sync’ed my email, contacts, and calendar to the device, and all worked quite smoothly.  I copied some photos, videos of the kids, some Arrested Development episodes, and some music from my library.  I also experienced my first real “use” of iTunes as a sync platform – it’s okay, but has some bizarre shortcomings that I was quite surprised about.  I downloaded a few apps (all free ones, didn’t want to buy anything yet and still haven’t bought one yet to this day actually),  played with them, kept some, deleted others.

Most of my time in week one was spent using the device in three settings (well, kinda four – read below)

1. On the bus
   Media device: Watched videos, wrote a blog post, listened to podcasts
2. At the office
   “Accessory” computer to my iMac:  Mostly light email, calendaring, some Harbor Master.
3. At home
   Laptop replacement: light-to-moderate email, Web surfing, lots more Harbor Master.
4. Demo to others
   My fourth scenario was simply showing the iPad to anyone around – lots of inquisitive folks wanting to see it in use. I wish I was getting a commission.

Week two.
The second week of use was my true “now how do I feel” week with the iPad.  Was it actually better/easier/more convenient than my MacBook?  Did I really want to carry this on the bus or other places? Would a murse fit into my lifestyle okay (separate post of iPad cases & sleeves coming)?

The above answers were all “yes”es, and more.  The only three uses of my MacBook last week were: watch NHL GameCenter (Go Habs!), sync and backup digital pictures, and charge/sync content to my iPad.  For literally everything else I used my iPad in lieu of the MacBook.  And not only did I use it, I found myself preferring it for most casual use.  But then this weekend got even more interesting.

On two different occasions this weekend (at a movie theater and while touring farms North of San Francisco) we had the iPad handy to look up long lists of content.  To be perfectly clear, we opted to carry an iPad rather than print out Web pages.  This was a conscious choice, and not in any way for “show off” factor (don’t worry – that was accomplished through plenty of other methods).  It was just an easy way to bring content along with us AND have our calendars AND have email history AND have contacts/address book information.  Things we obviously could do with smartphones (but generally choose not to), paper (ugh), or laptops.  But I’d *never* throw my laptop in the trunk on a day trip – something that just felt natural with the iPad.

It ain’t all kool-aid!
There are certainly flaws with the iPad.  In fact, my evernote-based list of likes/dislikes actually has more entries on the dislike list (future blog post).  It is, unquestionably, about the least ergonomic device I’ve used (the lap-pad pics from their ads are great, but radically unrealistic).   The lack of even simple multi-tasking (mail + calendar anyone?) can be annoying.  They could even take a cue out of Android and include a “back” button that spans multiple apps.  More on this in a future post.  But most importantly…

It’s not a replacement for any computer.  Just some.
As much as I believe the iPad has major impact in regards to light/casual/home computing, I don’t think most households could get by with “only” an iPad.  The lack of ability to effectively handle one’s digital camera needs is a “killer feature” for having a computer.  Further, no businessman could possibly exist on the iPad alone, though it’s an amazing complement to one.  I will say that I believe mail on the iPad vastly outshines any other non-computer device, specifically including BlackBerries, and that’s an important piece of ground for Apple to break.

But it is game-changing, and almost definitely not a bread machine.
I like having the iPad around.  I like turning it on, using it, then knowing it’s still there. It feels like everything the original PalmPilot put into my hands (though unfortunately not my pockets), only in context of computing and the Internet in 2010. I believe my use will only increase, and intend to start purchasing apps now.  It’s probably the most interesting digital accessory one can purchase, and unquestionably dabbles in “computer turf”.  I thoroughly enjoy using it, and find that it is helpful (not harmful) to overall productivity.  Except, of course, when I play Harbor Master.

I’ve spent a few weeks months playing with the 23″ LG W53 “SMART monitor”, and in a nutshell, it’s a darn fine unit (full unit acquisition disclosure at the bottom of the review).  When I first got it I had already been using a cheapo generic 23″ as an extension for my MacBook, so I really had a good way to do a side-by-side comparison.  I found the colors more vivid on the LG, the UI for controlling the monitor was more pleasant to use, and it simply looked a lot nicer on my desk.

As a disclaimer, I am by no means an expert at picture quality – with regards to how it appeared, this is purely a layman’s perspective.  My generic display had a bit of a dull-looking finish to colors, whereas bright colors on the LG seemed much more vivid.  I did try to set the default settings to appear similar (contrast, tint, etc), and watched a variety of content from movie trailers to simple desktop apps. There was also a “Cinema Mode” which looked good as well. The LG won hands-down, but in order to not sound all gushy about it, it wasn’t exactly a VCR-to-HDTV kind of difference in picture.  But if I had to choose, I’d choose the LG.

In contrast to picture quality, I actually do know a thing or two about user interface design (maybe even three), and considering how terrible most TV/monitor menuing systems are, the LG sports a nice touch.  Buttons & on-screen controls line up well and make sense.  Also, they have a little motion sensor so as your hand approaches the buttons, they light up – this might sound frivolous, but for those of us who like to keep as few extra lights on/visible as possible, it’s definitely a plus.

Lastly, the unit’s finish was much better than most of the other monitors I’ve seen at similar price points. While I’m not personally a huge fit-and-finish person, I do appreciate it looking a tad more professional on my desk.  This probably wouldn’t sell me on the unit either way, but if you are narrowing down amongst multiple options, having something look nice sure doesn’t hurt.  I actually ended up purchasing a 37″ LCD from LG for my home in large part due to the “high end feel” of their displays.  In summary, if you need a new/additional monitor, don’t want to break the bank, and want something that looks and feels good, I’d take a peek at the LG (on Amazon for ~$230).

Disclosure

I did not purchase the 23″ monitor, it was sent to me by LG, and I am permitted to keep it.  There were no stipulations, payments, or other parameters on the unit.

Now for the giveaway!

In addition to the unit for my desk, the gang at LG gave me one to give to the readers.  I’ve decided to use this as an opportunity to learn a bit more about who reads the blog.  If you are interested in winning the free monitor, just fill out my little survey between now and 12/31/09.  I’ll pick a winner randomly (note: you must live in the USA to win).

Note: the contest is over, the winner has been picked.  Thanks for your participation!

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, especially the web interface and options.

This post is also available on 1TO10REVIEWS.

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 nature 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 below, one of my stems broke.  Jawbone is kind enough to package multiple stems [for differently sized and shaped heads / 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 1TO10REVIEWS.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Enter Swimman:

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

Here are the basics:

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

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

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

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

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

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

This post is also available on 1TO10REVIEWS.

Some other related posts:

Engadget

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back to basics for me on LD.  This one is just a straight-up, old fashioned gadget review.

This wireless laser Desktop 6000 v 3.0 mouse and keyboard have some pretty cool features, though the keyboard suffers from some serious performance drawbacks.  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 1TO10REVIEWS.

In brief: TuneUp (500 song cleanups for free, $12/yr subscription, $20 lifetime license) makes it easy to find missing metadata for songs and missing album art.

I bet your music collection is a lot like mine used to be: a hodgepodge of mp3s, m4as, and other types of audio files that you’ve acquired over the years and ripped using various shareware products of dubious quality, resulting in hundreds or thousands of tracks that are misspelled, missing album names, and are generally a mess:

Sad Snippets of my pre-TuneUp music collection are coupled with…

… an even sadder dearth of album covers.

Sorting your library in iTunes yields a list of songs named “Track 01 – Insert Song Name Here” or “Kanye West Christmas Album 02: Jingle #(@*#ing Bells.” You’re missing album art, your genres are a mess. And, since doing a file-by-file fix would take hour upon frustrating hour, there’s no prospect of things getting better any time soon.

But don’t lose hope, because TuneUp (Windows only, Mac version coming this fall) is here to help. Launched earlier this year by the TuneUp Media, TuneUp offers a dead-simple way to scan audio files and correct missing or corrupt meta data, including album cover art. Its back-end is powered by Gracenote’s music fingerprinting service, which boasts a database of 80 million different tracks and 6 million albums.

Cleaning up your wayward tunes is easy – drag incomplete tracks to TuneUp’s interface, and the program returns results in a few seconds. Click to approve the suggested changes to update the file information, or reject suggestions or undo changes if you see a mistake.

In addition to scrubbing features, TuneUp offers a “Now Playing” companion that suggests YouTube videos, merchandise, and concert schedules for the song that you’re scrubbing or playing.

So what’s good?

• It works: I threw nearly 400 songs at TuneUp, and it found the correct track name, album, artist and genere for all but 2 – a godawful techno remix of Boys of Summer (like you don’t love DJ Sammy), and an instrumental version of the New York Mets theme song (my favorite ringtone). That’s 99.5%, for you stats geeks. TuneUp claims a standard 85% – 90% success rate, with most misses coming from remixes, unreleased live concert tracks, and the most obscure of obscure songs.
• It’s easy: Drag, drop, click. Done.
• If you don’t have a ton of music to fix, it’s free: TuneUp offers a free trial version that will clean up to 500 tracks.
• “Added value” is actually added value: The “Now Playing” section offers a fairly comprehensive list of videos, concert schedules, related music, and more. The merchandise and ticket auction sections feel like you’re having a bunch of referral links pushed at you, but they’re easily ignored.

What’s not as good?

• Clear the schedule: While TuneUp identified tracks quickly (2ish seconds apiece in my run), writing the metadata and album art was not. My 400 songs took nearly 15 minutes to find, 40 minutes to write.
• It’s not that I don’t love you, it’s just that sometimes I need some me time: Like a needy, whiney, insecure significant other, TuneUp won’t let you start iTunes without TuneUp tagging along. There is no feature in the preferences to disable this, and a forum posting on the topic doesn’t contain any reassurance that it will be coming anytime soon. Without uninstalling the program, I couldn’t find any obvious way to prevent TuneUp from loading.

As for my results? Take a look:

If you’ve got an eyesore of a music library that seems to taunt you every time you try and find a mislabeled track, you would be well-served by shelling out an Andrew Jackson to give TuneUp a try. It does what it says it will do, and does it well. As long as you’ve got a couple of hours to kill and don’t mind an application that loads every time you run iTunes, you will be rewarded with a music library that is so pristine that it looks like you actually paid for every single one of your tracks.

Update: The San Francisco Chronicle also provides a write-up of TuneUp, and contains a brief discussion of the Picard Project, which offers a free alternative to TuneUp. I haven’t tried Picard.

Editor (JT)’s Note: While I have both a personal and professional relationship with the TuneUp team, I did no edits whatsoever to this review, nor provide any direction or insight into the content, tone, etc.  My only involvement was to provide an introduction between Dan Rubin (article author) and the individual providing reviewer support at TuneUp.

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.

Note: If you’re not familiar with Saved By the Bell, I suggest you open up your wallet, clear a couple of days, and catch up. Then, return for the review.

The Nextar T30 is the Jessie Spano of the Portable Media Player world. The sub-$100 player has its upsides – it’s attractive, has a decent feature set, and the price for picking one up isn’t nearly as daunting as the cost of its more popular competition. But, much like AC Slater discovered when he started courting Jessie, the Nextar T30 features just enough potential deal-killers that you’ll wish that you had either made the effort to get your hands on the more attractive competition, or settled for something just as middling, but not quite as frustrating.

The Superficial

The T30, like Jessie, is a smart-looking piece of hardware with a slim profile. Its face is dominated by a 3.5 inch QVGA (320 x 240 resolution) screen, which Nextar claims supports over 260,000 colors (I didn’t count). The body, which is just under half an inch thick, sports a cheery orange accent. Tiny buttons for playback and navigation run the top and right edges. At 4″ x 3″, the whole package is light, easily pocketable, and garners the coveted “wow, that’s a big screen! Cool!” reaction from the easily impressed.

In any range of conditions, I had no problem with the screen’s brightness – even in full sunlight, the picture wasn’t washed out. The picture quality is passable, but not great – even with well-encoded video or 320×240 images, there was still noticeable pixelation.

Sound quality was adequate via the built in speaker, better using headphones.

Smarts (It’s What’s on the Inside That Counts, Right?)

Jessie Spano, a geek’s girl before there was an even a concept of a geek’s girl, knew it all. History, math, science, she could handle it all. The T30′s functionality is almost as impressive, with qualifiers – it plays music, plays video, displays photos, and serves as an “ebook” reader. 4GB of internal storage come built in, and an SD port allows for up to an additional 2GB. If you roll analog, you can calm your Top 40 craving with a built-in FM tuner that also allows you to record the audio directly to the T30′s storage. I was able to manage my media with Windows Media Player with no problem, and the brave can simply create folders and drag files in Windows Explorer.

I’m So Excited! I’m So Scared!

So how can you resist? Let’s reserve a table at The Max, get on the Zack Morris phone, and take this little mama to the prom!

Not so fast, bucko.

Hands-on, the Nextar T30 has some issues that could, for some users, prove more worrisome than our beloved Jessie’s skeleton-laden closet (most worrisome first):

• The Caffeine-Pill Addiction (the deal breaker): Just like Jessie’s lust for caffeine-fueled all-night study sessions almost destroyed her, the Nextar T30′s downfall is the device’s interface. It’s maddeningly slow and the button layout forces you to operate it with two hands. New media is listed seemingly by the day it was added, and there’s no way to adjust the display. Since you can’t sort your data (by album, song name, artist, etc), finding any piece of individual media when you’ve uploaded a full 6 GB will be an extensive, frustrating click-fest.
• The Bad-Boy Brother: Media management, like Jessie’s rebellious half-sibling Eric, is aggressively irritating. Quick example: I own Wang Chung’s Greatest Hits (who doesn’t?), and I want the option to be able to listen to the album as a whole, or to listen to “Everybody Have Fun” on my “All Time Greatest Hits” playlist. To do this, I had to create two folders (one for each playlist), and then copy the song into each folder. Having to load the same media onto the same device twice is about as bad as trying to cheat Screech out of his valedictorian spot because you want to get into Stamford University.
• The Know-it-all Attitude: You can play any type of video, as long as it’s an avi (video conversion software comes in the box, but doesn’t convert Quicktime files). You can read any ebook, as long as it’s a .txt file. You can listen to any type of music, as long as its an mp3 or wma file. Blech. I know format lock-ins aren’t unique to Nextar, but it’s still frustrating.

The Kelly Factor

Like Jessie, the Nextar T30 is in a field laden with tough competitors. Jessie Spano always seemed to find herself shown up in one way or another. The Nextar finds itself similarly outcompeted:

• The Creative Zen 4 GB, the Stacey Carosi of the bunch. Not much prettier, but a lot more pluck – for the same price point, provides a more vivid (but smaller) screen, better media management, and basic contact info/calendar management.
• The iPod Nano 4GB, for $50 more, is the Lisa Turtle – richer, and more polished. It’s an iPod. The screen’s smaller, but if you’re reading this site, you don’t need a rundown on how the iPod works.
• The Archos 605 and iPod Touch are the lust-worthy Kelly Kapowskis. Both sport similar sized, more vivid screens, and are heads and shoulders above the Nextar in every category. I know the comparison is completely unfair, as these devices are targeted at entirely different markets, but the men of Bayside High and the Malibu Sands Beach Club had to make their choices as well. Is it worth a couple hundred extra bucks to have everything you always wanted, or do you want to settle for the issues-laden, unmanageable cheapie? The choice is yours.

The Report Card

Poor Jessie, despite all of her surface appeal, never came out on top. Time after time, her beauty and smarts were subsumed by her haughty whining, costing her friends, boyfriends, and audience love. The same holds true for the Nextar T30, a portable media player that manages to disappoint despite its attractive price point, appealing design, and huge screen. You may need to shell out a couple of extra bucks to pick up a better option, but the trifle of a few bucks is worth not having to deal with the T30′s maddening interface and media management issues. This little mama is going to detention – turn your sights elsewhere.