Category Archives: Gadgets & Apps

All posts that don’t obviously fit in one of the sub-categories go here.

Thumbs up for Google Reader

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I first heard about RSS at a Gnomedex in Des Moines several years ago (Chris Pirillo was an early evangelist). Since then I’ve tried Feed Demon, My Yahoo!, Blogliines, Safari… and a bunch of other news readers that I can’t recall. I just never found one that felt right for me. All the while, the list of blogs and websites I read daily kept growing. Enter Google Reader.

Google Reader

I really like this thing. I’m on two or three different computers in a typical day so I want/need something web-based. I like the UI for the same reasons I like Gmail. And I can already see that I’m able to scan more sites in less time.

The Micro Mosquito

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The Micro Mosquito from Interactive Toy Concepts is a tiny high-tech toy helicopter that flies like the real deal. This radio-controlled copter can soar, dive and even hover in place. Available now at Radio Shack for $70, the Mosquito is rechargeable and flies for about eight minutes on one charge. This indoor toy includes a controller and a landing pad that doubles as a recharging platform.

The entire helicopter is six inches long with rotors 6.3 inches in diameter, and weighs less than an ounce. You can launch the Mosquito from any surface — a table, a hand or the floor — and it has two beady green L.E.D. eyes for night missions. It is made to work in small spaces but is susceptible to breezes and fans, making flights a bit dangerous if the window is open. (NYT)

Apple polishing

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Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced some new stuff yesterday. These events get Mac users hopping from one foot to the other and –now that I have a Mac– I sort of understand why. I can’t explain why, but I kind of get it.

Speaking of “get it” … I’ll eventually have to get one of the slick new nano’s (I just watched the amazing ad for same). The new Shuffle is literally wearable computing.

And there’s a new version of iTunes. I’m a sucker for a pretty UI and this is about as nice as they come. I haven’t seen them but there’s talk of a new series of Get A Mac ads poking fun at Windows efforts to mimic the sleek look and feel of the Mac OS. I’m sure Vista is/will be pretty but if the new iTunes is a hint of what the new Mac OS is going to look like… it’s no contest for me.

If you spend 90% of every waking moment looking at a computer, that time is more pleasant…more fun… if it’s Mac.

Casio Exilim EX-Z1000

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My beloved Casio camera started giving me some weird white screens and rather than wait for it to completely fail at a critical moment… I upgraded. The Casio Exilim Ex-Z1000 is the new, bigger brother to the model I had. Slightly larger form factor but that allows for an even larger display. Lots of megapixels and some optical zoom. But the real clincher for me was the video. With a 2 gig SD card, I can record up to two hours of video! Amazing. Sound is pretty good, too. Here’s a little 2 min clip (13 meg .wmv) I shot last night. John Fougere and David Brazeal doing the weekly high school football scoreboard show.

Record Skype calls. Easy.

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Call RecorderCall Recorder from ecamm network provides a really simple, inexpensive ($13) way to record a Skype call. For Mac users. David and I chatted for 2 minutes last night so I could check this out. I was using an inexpensive LogiTech headset/mic and I’m not sure what David was using. He sounded a little hotter than I did and Call Recorder does not give you a way to monitor levels (that I saw). But this is literally a one-button plug-in for Skype.

The resulting audio file is a Quicktime .mov file. Call Recorder comes with a few conversion tools that turns your call into an MP3 file. And one of the tools converts to two channels so you can work with either end of the call. For price and ease-of-use, I don’t know how it can get much better.

The quality will only be as good as your connection and your mics. But I think this sounds a lot better than anything you’d get with a regular phone call. And I think I can tweak this for better results. I’ve got a couple of interviews coming up that will give me a better test drive. And, as I told David, I’m sure that are Windows apps that will do this as well or better.

Is your “stuff” good enough to pay for?

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“Alltel Wireless customers will be able to access XM Satellite Radio programming via their cell phones for $7.99 per month. The deal links the fifth-largest mobile service provider in the United States with the world’s largest satellite radio company. Like its competitors, Alltel is facing the imminent prospect of market saturation, so the company is seeking high-value content to gain additional revenue from its customer base.”

Seems to me you’d have to be a big fan of XM to pay an extra eight bucks a month to listen on your cell phone. And wouldn’t that be hell on the battery? But the more interesting question (for me) is: Do you have the kind of content that someone would be willing to pay for?

As businesses figure out that they can –if they’re clever enough– take their message directly to their customers, they’ll stop paying to have their messages jammed down people’s throats. We are approaching a time when the only reason people will listen to an (unwanted) commercial message is because they can’t figure out a way to avoid doing so. If you want to talk to your customers, you better start listening to them.

If you don’t know how to do that, you’re in trouble with a capital T and that rhymes with P and that stands for pool.

Podcasting with GarageBand 3

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Podcasting with GarageBand 3That’s the tile of a video training CD from lynda.com. The instructor, Scott Bourne, is really good. GarageBand a piece of Apple software most noted for making music but the latest upgrade includes some nice podcasting features. I have access to very good recording and editing hardware and software but I’d like to see what I can produce on the MacBook. The two CD set runs about $50 bucks but I think it’s worth it. I confess I got hooked by working through the first few lessons on the lynda.com website. I think it was at the end of Lesson #3 that I realized I’d have to subscribe or buy the CD to get more. By then I was hooked. Well done lynda.com. Let me get through the two CD’s and I’ll put something together, post it here and you can judge for yourself if the training is any good. [Amazon]

Phil gets a MacBook

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Phil's MacBook Phil Atkinson, head of Learfield’s IT operation, was forced… I mean, he really had no choice… to purchase a MacBook Pro. As our company does more with podcasting and video and iTunes… having a Mac in the house will just make Phil’s life a little easier. At least, that’s the line he gave me. Here you see him closing the cover on the win box and opening the Mac. An image heavy with symbolism. He reports that Bootcamp makes it a snap to run OSX and XP (sound of cash register in Cupertino).

iTunes video

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Reno 911Tonight I purchased (and watched) my first TV show from iTunes. I somehow missed the first episode of Comedy Central’s Reno 911 (Seaon Four) but there it was on iTunes for just $1.99. I’m sure the cable channel will show the episode again (many times). But I wanted to see it now and I wanted to experience watching a TV show on my Mac Book (I don’t have a video iPod).

Took about 2 minutes to download the file and I found it to be very watchable on the small screen. I might just purchase every episode for the convenience of having them on my Mac Book to watch whenever/wherever. This is where it’s headed folks.

Mac on the road

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I can’t remember who made the first “portable” computer I owned but the bastard must have weighed 15 pounds. Connecting to the web wasn’t an issue in those days because it didn’t exist (in any way that mattered to me). I can’t even remember what I did with the laptop on the road.

This is my first outing with a Mac and I couldn’t be happier. The hotel charged me $10 a day for cable access but I just plugged it in and was up and running. Wifi was very slow at the conference but the Mac found the signal with no fiddling or port futzing.

I’m posting this from the Seattle airport where $8 buys 24 hours of really fast net access. Nobody needs 24 hours but what a great way to pass the time (or do bidness). And, again, so easy. This is the way mobile computing was meant to be.