Chip Griffin: Pardon the Disruption

The Gadgets, Gizmos, and Services I Currently Love

Hey, it's the holidays.  Some of you may be wondering what to get for others ... or what treats to give yourself. So here's an incomplete list of some of the gadgets, gizmos, services, and other things that I am currently finding worthwhile. Some are for fun, others are for business.  All are subject to my own personal preferences, so take them for what they are.

Sonos
This is the device that makes me happiest at home right now.  It ain't cheap, but it lets me stream music throughout my house.  I can listen to subscription tracks from Rhapsody wherever I want, whenever I want.  It's great when my wife and I are talking about a song from the past to be able to instantly call it up and play it.  And the Sonos folks have been working hard to continue to improve their product through free software updates that let you search for songs more easily.  In addition, it integrates with one of my new favorite services, Pandora.

Pandora
Hands down, Pandora has opened my eyes to more music than I ever would have ventured to try before.  Now that I can use it on my Sonos, I find it to be very valuable.  When I had to listen to it on the web using my computer, I was less enthused.  But listening to music on stereo speakers throughout my house sold me.  I have created a variety of stations for the different types of music I enjoy, and it does a pretty good job of delivering some variety to my listening habits.

iPhone
OK, so I admit I was wrong when I first dissed the iPhone.  The Edge network hasn't been unusable, though it is slower than EVDO (but for what I use my phone for I rarely notice).  I figured out how to type on it pretty quickly.  And the navigation features are pretty cool.  It even got me back to using iTunes for my portable music because it is nice to carry just one device, and I was simply fed up with DRM issues surrounding portable subscription music (which I would still prefer if someone can get it done right).

Garmin Nuvi 660
I hadn't used a GPS device until a couple of months ago when I broke down and got the Nuvi 660.  Another gadget that isn't cheap, but it is has already paid for itself, in my mind at least.  Now, anyone who knows me understands that I hate to drive and -- truth be told -- I'm probably not the best behind the wheel.  So when I do venture out on my own I want to get where I'm going fast without getting lost.  This little guy took me through upstate NH, VT, and NY and didn't miss a beat.  In fact, when I decided to make a side trip on the way back from the conference I was attending, it really came in handy.  I was headed to Cooperstown to check out the Baseball Hall of Fame, but a traffic jam that the Nuvi detected threatened to add an hour to my trip and it was already getting late (and the only thing I hate more than driving is driving in the dark).  Without my even having to intervene, it re-routed me around the traffic on some scenic side roads and got me to Cooperstown only about 15 minutes later than I had originally anticipated. 

MXL MicMate
I do a fair amount of audio recording for podcasts (my own and others) and frequently find myself on the road.  I used to record into my Zoom H4 (which I like for truly portable recording) and then transfer to my laptop. But now I can eliminate a step by recording directly to my Mac using the MicMate which connects a professional microphone (I use the Shure SM-58) through the USB port.  It's about the size of a dry erase marker and does its job very nicely.  Very portable and useful.  Fair warning: for some reason it does seem to draw attention from our good friends at TSA.  It must look like something else on the X-ray screen.

Sony Reader
To heck with all those folks who don't like book readers.  I love mine and wouldn't dream of giving it up.  At least not unless I decide to try out the Amazon Kindle.

Slingbox
Now that I use the iPhone I can't watch the Slingbox on my cell phone anymore, but I still can on my computer.  I actually find that I use it a lot at home so that I can watch a game on my laptop while sitting with my wife who is watching some TV show or movie.

Rackspace
Everyone who knows me has heard me rave about Rackspace as a hosting provider.  These guys have been taking care of all of my businesses since 2000.  I started with one small server, and now have more than I can count along with all sorts of bells and whistles (and a team of people on my end that deal with Rackspace, so I rarely have the pleasure myself).  You will notice a theme here as I tell you they aren't the cheapest solution, but they are worth it.  Yes, the servers and uptime are fantastic, but the service is what keeps me coming back over and over again.  Like any service provider, we encounter bumps in the road (in fact, we just had a rocky couple of weeks trying to get an upgrade done) but ultimately Rackspace comes through every time -- often in entertaining ways.  When the head of my tech team once told a "Racker" (as they call themselves) that he figured if he asked for a ham sandwich that they would come through, he got a ham sandwich delivered to him the next day (along with enough for his co-workers).  Just recently, he was frustrated at the speed of a response from one of their technicians, so he asked the account manager to "stand on his desk until he gets you the info."  Lo and behold, he was greeted with an emailed photo of the account manager standing on that individual's desk. 

ServerBeach
OK, I admit it.  I cheat on Rackspace once in a while.  Very rarely, actually, but sometimes when I want to play with something for personal use or something more R&D oriented that is far from mission critical, I use ServerBeach.  These guys are great at setting up quick, cheap servers.  I have no experience using them for higher-end stuff, but at the low end they do exactly what they promise for relatively cheap prices.  (And for non-mission-critical stuff I find the cost savings over Rackspace to be worth it, though many of these projects "graduate" to Rackspace if they succeed.) I rationalize this disloyalty to Rackspace by the fact that ServerBeach itself was started by Richard Yoo, a co-founder of Rackspace.

TypePad
It's where I host most of my blogs, and I have even used it to launch a new company.  Now I plan to explore MovableType because I have been so pleased with TypePad but am starting to hit the limits of what I can do with their hosted solution.  It isn't perfect, but I recommend TypePad over Wordpress to most business professionals who aren't inclined to do heavy-duty tinkering.

Skype
I didn't used to be a big fan of Skype.  I found it to be of spotty quality, but I went back to it recently and have found it to be a tremendous resource for recording phone interviews for publishing online.  I use SkypeOut and have had no significant quality issues.  I still don't use Skype as heavily as some of my colleagues, but it is useful to me in the way I employ it.

GrandCentral
In the past, I have chased after the promise of a single phone number to reach me anywhere.  I tried some services a few years ago that worked a little, but most of them required sequential attempts at different numbers and weren't very transparent to the caller.  Finally, GrandCentral packaged everything up nicely so there is one phone number to reach me anywhere, anytime.  Since I have about 8 different phone numbers and it is virtually impossible for anyone (myslef included) to predict where I will be easiest to reach at any given time, this single number capability is a great communications tool for me.  Can't imagine ever going without it, which is why I am glad Google bought this company up, something that guarantee its stability.

LuckyOliver
I love including photos and artwork with blog posts and articles I publish online, but most existing services are too hard to understand the licensing arrangements -- or the licenses themselves are too expensive -- or the photos are of poor quality.  Then one of the guys who works for me told me about LuckyOliver.  I'm glad he did.  It typically costs about $1 per photo to be able to add it to a blog or online article.  It's a great deal to add some sex appeal to the text.

Google Reader
It's free so you can't give it away, but this service is now my longest-running RSS reader that I have used. Typically I change all the time, but ever since Google Gears allowed me to read my feeds offline when I'm on an airplane, I have ditched everything else and rely exclusively on Google Reader -- and I have no desire to change anymore.

Gmail
I don't read my email online with Gmail, but I do forward much of my mail here because it has an awesome spam filter.  I still download into a desktop program to read it because I still am not crazy about the Gmail interface, but I couldn't live without its powerful -- and accurate -- spam filtering.

Zoom H4
I already mentioned this this earlier in this post, but I do like the Zoom H4 for portable recording of interviews.  It accepts professional XLR inputs so I can use my Shure SM-58 microphone with it and does a nice job of recording.  It looks a bit like a taser, but thus far TSA seems more interested in my MicMate when I pass through security...

Verizon Wireless EVDO Card
When I'm on the road (which is often), not having to worry about finding wireless networks at airports, hotels, conferences, and the like is a great relief.  My EVDO card gets me a solid Internet connection from almost anywhere, and I don't get nickle-and-dimed by every new location I visit.

MacBook Pro
Yup, I'm a convert.  I went away from Macs for some 16 years, but recently returned to the fold.  In the past few weeks, I have even weened myself off of Parallels, which I had been using to run many Windows apps as I eased into the transition.  Now I'm all Mac baby (though I keep Parallels installed for when I find something I just can't get to work otherwise).  Now, if only I could find a Mac blog editor as good as Windows Live Writer, I'd be a truly happy camper.

Belkin Retractable Cable Travel Pack
Did I mention I travel a lot?  And that I carry a ton of gadgets with me?  I used to have a horrendous tangle of cables I would carry until I found this handy tool at Staples one day.  It's a nice, compact, complete set of cables that gives me almost everything I need when I'm on the road.  It would be nice to have a firewire cable for my video cameras, but I can live without it because this kit offers everything else I need.  I'm completely lost without it.  In fact, on a recent trip to Manhattan I went out and bought another because I thought I had lost it and couldn't connect one of my devices to my laptop.  When I got home, I realized it was just so small that it had fallen to the bottom of one of my briefcase pockets and I just didn't see it.

Sony Camcorders
Yes, this is vague, but I have several and have had good experiences with all of them.  I have a prosumer version that I use for high-end interviews and it does a great job.  It has an external mic and XLR jacks, as well as the ability to record to tape or hard disk.  Very expensive, but worthwhile for business use.  At the same time, I have an older, cheaper, lower-end consumer version that doesn't do HD or record to hard disk, but it is much more portable and affordable.

Canon Cameras
My favorite is the EOS 3D.  It is a high-end digital SLR and for much of what I do it is overkill.  But it handles action photography much better than its cheaper siblings (like the Digital Rebel).  And with young children, waiting for a second or two between shots can be the difference between getting a great photo and getting nothing.  I'm not nearly the photo expert that many of my new media colleagues are (like Josh Hallett and David Parmet), so maybe their love of Nikons should steer you in that direction instead.  But I'm a happy Canon man and have been for years.  I even have a little Canon digital that I keep in my briefcase at all times for quick conference photos and other similar uses.

I'm sure I may think of other things later, but what are your favorite gadgets, gizmos, toys, and tools?  What should I ask for this holiday season?  What should I give to others?

Drobo Takes Off - Yet Another Example of Buzz at Work

I had never heard any talk of a hard drive storage solution called Drobo until today.  And suddenly it seems to be everywhere.  Sal Cangeloso offers a good rundown of the story. 

I'm in the market for something like this right now since I can't help myself as far as doing podcasts goes.  Plus I'm experimenting with some video and still photography stuff at the moment, mostly to learn, but who knows where it may lead?  All of this takes a ton of disk space.  So the story appealed to me.

But it also shows yet again how quickly stories can take off in the blogosphere and how much we all can act as an echo chamber for each other from time to time.

Technorati tags: Drobo, Sal Cangeloso, buzz marketing

I Got Vista Too Soon

I now remember why I don't get new operating systems right when they are released.  My gadget geekiness got the better of me, though, and since I was due for a new laptop anyway, I got a new Dell XPS M1210 with Vista Ultimate.  I got one that was fully tricked out since my last laptop, a Thinkpad Tablet, was great but a bit slow for as hard as I pushed it.

The good news is that the system is very fast.  When it works.  Unfortunately there are a litany of small and large problems with it.  It seems the blame can be spread around pretty evenly among Microsoft, Dell, and various software & hardware vendors.

The Bad

• The driver situation isn't very pretty.  I get repeated messages from my system at bootup that at least one driver has been disabled because of compatibility.  Which might be understandable had I installed it, but the offending driver belongs to the Roxio DVD software which came pre-installed by Dell.  Score one point in favor of Vista for finding the problem and disabling the driver so it doesn't cause more problems; subtract one each for Dell for shipping a product with a bad driver and the Roxio driver folks for not being ready for Vista.
• A big black mark for Cisco for failing to come up with an updated version of its VPN client that works with Vista.  But, hey, I didn't really want to access the company network from the road anyway, right?
• I have yet to figure out what caused it, but I got a couple of Blue Screens of Death yesterday.  I haven't installed much software yet -- just a handful of essentials.  The good news is that after several semi-automatic reboots, Vista had solved the problem and returned the system to a stable state.  The bad news is that it undid a number of changes I had made to the IE Toolbar and Outlook (using only Microsoft options).
• The system came with integrated Verizon Wireless EVDO.  Since I'm on the road almost every week, that's great news.  Unfortunately, I tried to activate the service and it took me to the Verizon Wireless web site, had me fill out a long form, and told me it could be up to 5 minutes before it finished processing.  Over 20 minutes later I bailed out and tried again -- being forced to fill out the long form from scratch again.  Same result.  Apparently I will be subjected to calling customer support on this one.
• It doesn't appear to be related to the EVDO problem, but I do get periodic warnings that some driver is causing problems.  It looks like it is either the EVDO or the WiFi driver, but in Googling it I haven't gotten a good answer yet. This one I'll let go since it hasn't blocked the use of anything as far as I can tell so far.
• The Windows sidebar with widgets frequently pops up a message saying it has to close because of some problem.  But then it seems to stay open.  And I haven't touched any of the setting for it.  Until last night when I figured out how to shut it off entirely so I didn't have to worry about it anymore.
• I keep getting messages from Windows that the Windows and Norton Firewall are both disabled.  The OS apparently doesn't recognize that Norton is running (or at least it says it is) or Norton isn't providing the right information to Windows.

The Good

• As noted above, Vista seems to do a pretty good job of finding and solving problems.  I wouldn't quite call it "self-healing" but it is the best I have seen from any version of Windows in graceful recovery.
• I really like Office 2007.  Outlook only has minor interface adjustments, but the creation of more of a true dashboard view around my Inbox is very welcome indeed.  Word has great features, including a minor but very useful word count feature that automatically adjusts if you select text.  For those of us who write columns and such with a specific word count requirement will find this much more friendly than previous versions.  The UI for Word and Excel does take a little getting used to -- certainly a learning curve there that will likely frighten the less technical among us -- but they become intuitive fairly quickly.  And features are much easier to access than before.

Bottom Line

I'm not ready to give up on Vista just yet, but I do wish that I hadn't rushed into it.  It's a reminder that those of us who live on the bleeding edge of technology will spill some of our own blood, sweat, and tears dealing with it.

Technorati tags: Microsoft, Windows, Vista, sidebar, Norton, Office 2007, Word, Outlook, widgets, EVDO, WiFi, Verizon Wireless, firewall, Blue Screen of Death, Roxio, Dell, XPS M1210, Lenovo, Thinkpad, Vista Ultimate, Cisco

Coolest Product at CES

The Novint Falcon provides users with realistic physical feedback.  The demo shown at CES included using this controller to "touch" a variety of surfaces.  When moving across a bumpy ball, you could feel the bumps.  Pushing through a glob of molasses felt just like you were putting a stick into the jar.  And trying to touch the center of an ice ball was impossible as you felt yourself slipping all over it.

Of course, the real use for the device is as a gaming controller.  The Novint team used Half Life as the gaming demonstration.  When firing a shotgun, the controller realistically recoils.  Trying to handle the submachine guns requires real concentration as it vibrates wildly.

The physical feedback this device provides is truly realistic.  It isn't the seemingly random vibrations that the XBox 360 controller provides. 

Not exactly a high-productivity device, but probably the coolest product I have seen at CES.

More thoughts on the products I have seen coming in the days ahead.

Sonos Now Works With Urge

I learned today that my beloved home wireless music system, Sonos, now works with MTV's Urge service. Previously the only subscription music it was compatible with was Rhapsody.

I look forward to testing this when I return from CES later this week.

The Sony Reader Rocks

OK, most readers know I love my gadgets.  And my wife will surely tell you that I have way too many of them.  But I can't help it.  I like testing the latest and greatest.  I especially enjoy it when I find one that revolutionizes how I live my life or do my job.  An example is the SlingBox which makes it so much more pleasurable for me when I'm on the road (which is something like 45+ weeks out of the year).

When the Sony Reader came out this fall, I knew I had to try it.  Actually, I put my name on the list before it was even available and bought it as soon as I could.  Most reviews that I have seen have been pretty mixed, but I must say that I'm very enthusiastic.

For those who are not familiar with the Sony Reader, it is an e-book reader.  It's about the size of a thin trade paperback with a screen that attempts to imitate real paper.  I like to compare it to an Etch-a-Sketch because it requires power only to realign the crystals on the screen so the battery life is tremendous.  In addition, it is not backlit which helps with eyestrain issues familiar to laptop users and also makes it very readable in sunlight or other bright situations.  Ironically, most reviews I have seen criticize it for not using a backlight, but that's the whole idea.

I have now read about a half dozen books on it and am so hooked I am beginning to make reading decisions based on what I can find available in the Sony CONNECT store (where you realistically have to buy your books to use the device).  To date, that's been the weakest link, although it does seem to be improving.  Certainly the selection in that store doesn't rival Amazon.com or even the local mom & pop shop, but I have found plenty of books I want to read.  I have found a good mixture of fiction and non-fiction, but I would still like to see the selection improve.  And the store interface leaves quite a lot to be desired.  It is slow and clunky with frequent bugs.

The other major criticism others have levied is that it is slow to turn pages.  And in isolation it certainly is.  It takes about a full second for the page to change and it is quite obvious, not the fast page turn that web browsers are used to, for instance.  But when you compare it to turning pages in a regular book, it seems about the same to me.  And even if the screen changed instantaneously, you still need to refocus your eyes at the top of the screen, so I'm not convinced the time lag is that significant.

In short, this is a great device for anyone who spends a lot of time on the road.  Tossing this lightweight device in my briefcase, I can have up to 80 books at the ready without breaking my back.  Just try that with paperbound versions.  And, oh yeah, if I get the urge to read a specific book in the middle of the night, I can have it on my Sony Reader in just minutes.  No need to run to the store or have Amazon ship it overnight. 

Bottom line: I enthusiastically recommend the Sony Reader.

Slingbox Has Competition

Looks like my beloved Slingbox has some competition from one of the big boys.  Sony has announced a LocationFree TV product that will do most of the the Slingbox does and more.  I am especially intrigued by the ability to stream video wirelessly to other TVs in the same home.  That's something I would find very useful.  Will have to check this product out when it becomes available later this fall.

Is Hosted Gmail the Answer?

Ken Yarmosh over at Technosight is excited about hosted Gmail, which he is currently beta testing. He notes that a real advantage it has is that even though he uses multiple computers, he always has the same view of his email. For some, this may indeed be a good solution.

But I prefer a hosted Microsoft Exchange solution. (In my case, I use Intermedia's service, but there are other good ones that friends of mine use.)

As Ken notes, he has to login to the Gmail service to have that common look and feel. And he says he prefers an email client but is willing to sacrifice it to get the benefits of Gmail.

In my case, I can't rely on something I must connect to. I spend too much time each week on airplanes where I need to be able to work offline with my email on my laptop. Fortunately, a hosted Exchange server solution enables me to use Outlook on any of my 3 computers plus my Treo 700w and be sure that I always have a consistent picture.

Better yet, my contacts and calendar are all synced across all of those platforms as well.

So Gmail may work for some, but many will prefer access to Exchange, especially since a number of good, affordable, hosted solutions are now available and you no longer have to set up and administer your own email server.

Tags: gmail, exchange, hosted email, technosight

SlingPlayer Mobile Impresses

I'm a SlingBox addict.  Because I'm a Red Sox fanatic.  And I travel about half the week to places where you can't just put the TV on and watch the game. 

But I've always been forced to choose between sitting in the hotel room watching the game on my laptop or going out to enjoy a nice meal in one of the fine restaurants in whichever city I happen to be in that night. 

Until about a month ago when SlingMedia came out with the SlingPlayer Mobile.  This nifty little app pairs nicely with my Treo 700w using Verizon's speedy EVDO service.  Granted, the screen is small, but I can still read the score (mostly) on that thin bar that runs across the top of most sporting events now.  Qaulity is very good.  Very few dropped frames and the audio is quite clear.

It has certainly become a wow factor for whomever I'm dining with (and often just someone I'm sitting near at another table or an adjacent barstool). 

I highly recommend the SlingBox and the SlingPlayer Mobile for any entrepreneur who spends too much time on the road and not enough time keeping up with the local teams.