Category Archives: reviews

My Xoom review

Posted on April 20, 2011 | Leave a comment

I’ve been meaning to write this for a few days, and decided I just need to sit down and do it. Be aware, this review has no pics. There’s so many pics of the Xoom and the iPad out there, there’s just no need for them now. We all know what a tablet looks like now.

 

OK here’s my thoughts on the Xoom…

The short: I like it, I like it a lot. I’ve been using it almost exclusively since my friend and colleague Jeffy Houser gave it to me for my work on The Flex Show. It’s no iPad but it’s nice.

The Long version:

OS: Honeycomb seems like a great OS. Google shoulda been working on it sooner, and needs to stop dicking around trying to port it to a phone. Rock tablets, and let Honeycomb’s successor be the 1 OS for both.

It’s got some rough spots, but overall I’ve found it to be a great Tablet OS. I had a Viewsonic gTablet and tried 2.2 and 2.3 on it. Clearly neither OS was made for Tablets, so the experience sucked! But the Xoom, feels and works like a tablet should.

The widgets rock, the transitions between screens are very nice, and clean.

 

Apps (marketplace): Point, Apple. I admit, most of the apps on my iPhone and iPad, I can live without, some I never even open after installing or using once. However, right now, there are like 62 apps made for honeycomb. Not 1 is a twitter app!!

Many of the apps for the Xoom, are stupid, so being available doesn’t really do much. Thankfully google does a better job at upscaling than Apple does, so phone apps, mostly don’t look like ass on the Xoom, assuming they work

Say what you will about Apple and the iOS Store, the Google marketplace is pretty much like Dave Chappelle predicted. Amazon has cleaned up the mess a bit, but they’re not there yet.

I’ve been pretty happy with the Xoom app wise, not really missing most iOS apps. Here’s the ones I miss and why.

  • OmniFocus – I’ve invested in their offering. It’s on my iPhone, iPad, and mac. Making todo lists, etc is nice when they’re shared across devices.
  • Flipboard – I’ve got Pulse, and Newsr but Flipboard and Reeder were my goto apps and I do miss them. NetNewsWire too for that matter. My iPad was mainly remote desktop, and news reading.

That’s really it. There’s a few others I’d like to have on the Xoom for sure, but if any combo of those three apps made it to the Xoom I’d be cool.

 

Ecosystem: Win, Apple. Obviously lock in is a big part of this picture, and Apple certainly gains nothing by cooperating, but not having a viable iTunes replacement is a huge loss for the Xoom, and android in general. There’s DoubleTwist which is ok, but nothing remotely close to the awesome experience Apple offers. I will give Double Twist props for the over the Air syncing. Apple, really you shoulda figured this out already.

But yeah I STILL haven’t gotten any of my pics onto the Xoom. There’s not USB host support yet (fail) and Double Twist does music and sorta, video only. Even the Dropbox app doesn’t support saving an image from dropbox to the local storage. I could do some wifi FTP stuff, but that’s just too much work as far as I’m concerned.

Other Tablets: Apple needs competition, so does Motorola. But more importantly, if Google hopes to make some headway against Apple, with Tablets, they need to have more devices out there. Motorola did a good job with the Xoom, but I think someone can do better.

Plus if they (Motorola and Google, etc) hope to get developers interested in building apps for Tablets, there needs to be more devices out there to run them. I suspect part of the reason there’s only 63 apps is that many developers don’t want to waste their time, if there’s a chance the OS could change or google could scrap it entirely (GoogleTV anyone?)

 

So verdict? If you’re ok not having many apps right now (the main ones are there. Evernote, a nice VNC app, tweetdeck sorta works, Firefox, dropbox, etc), and can survive without iTunes-like desktop love. The Xoom might be a fun device for you. The OS is certainly more computer-y which I like, but it’s definitely an easy device to use. Easy as an iPad, no. Easy enough for a non moron? Yes.

Like I said, i’ve been leaving my iPad at home the last two weeks, and am surviving quite well. I haven’t gifted my ipad to Nicole yet, so I have the option to go back, but honestly, with an iPhone, not sure I will.

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Posted in community, Flex Show, Google Android, I am a Consumer, I am a Creator, iPhone, reviews, Technology, Travel, Work, Writing

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iWatch Review Part two: The Lunatik

Posted on February 7, 2011 | 2 Comments

I’ve already reviewed the iPod Nano as a watch, this review is an addition to that. Primarily for the Lunatik, watch enclosure. Or “Multi touch watch” as they call it.I got in on this awesome kickstarter project very early, well before they even met their minimum funding level. You can get more info at the new site, and actually purchase this awesome kit.

This kit pretty much takes the “iPod on a watch strap” and makes it iWatch. It’s likely the iPod will never leave this enclosure except possibly if it does and needs to be replaced.

This is now a watch. Which rocks!

now if Apple would just release an SDK, so folks can create awesome watch sized content I’ll be happy.

Pros

Much safer than being clipped to a band.

More watch-like so it can be in my collection of watches

Essentially stops being an iPod and is a multimedia capable watch

Very adjustable strap

Cons

The band is very prone to getting dirty. I’m hoping that as the silicone material of the band ages a little and gets worn, it’ll stop attracting so much dirt and dust. If not I’ll be looking for an alternate strap. Maybe my previous strap, though it’s not wide enough really.

This isn’t a surprise, but it’s still a pretty bulky watch. It’s a trade off for sure, I’m less worried about my iWatch getting busted by an accidental wall bash, but now it’s a very visible part of my wrist.

All in all I really like the LunaTik, and would recommend it to anyone looking to watch-ify the iPod Nano Touch.

I will say that at the gym I’m much less worried about yanking my headphone cord now, which happened a few times, and took the iPod off the strap and sent it flying. Not sure which is better but the iWatch is definitely gym ready in all that aircraft grade aluminum.

Dear Apple,

I’d love some apps for this. Not all of course, not the full app store experience, but still. my fitness app would rock, a slim down interface for rep counting, Alternate watch faces, etc.

Without Wifi (maybe a dongle? or future version) there’s a lot that would be pointless or require a sync to accomplish but still, it’d be nice!

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Posted in Business, I am a Consumer, Mac, reviews, Technology

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AppleTV vs. GoogleTV… Fight!

Posted on January 24, 2011 | 1 Comment

I’d kill a kitten, maybe 2 for a device that is a goto media center device. What would that be?

Well it’d have access to hulu, Netflix, my local music and video files (On a Drobo over SMB), be able to rent content from somewhere (I don’t care whether it’s iTunes, Amazon, etc since I do this maybe 2x a year)

That’s it, nothing crazy really. Yet the two main(stream) players…. have’t gotten it.

First, AppleTV.

I totally skipped the first gen AppleTV. it wasn’t that interesting, even with the hacks. Then came the 2nd gen AppleTV. It was still VERY far from great but more promising.

1. it was iOS, meaning it’d likely get apps like hulu and Netflix, and ABC.. It still hasn’t, but I haven’t given up hope, there’s no real reason I can see why the device would ship with iOS if not to eventually let thru a few media apps.

2. it was iOS, meaning it’d be jailbroken sooner or later. Turns out it took a while, but see below.

3. it was able to home share. Home Sharing is ok, but when we get home from somewhere and want to watch something that I er.. “got online” i’d have to fire up the MacBook, load iTunes, etc then reach out thru AppleTV for it. So it’s an ok solution, but not great.

4. Airplay. This I think will be a crown jewel for Apple and the AppleTV. Admittedly it’s a bit weak right now, but current beta’s reveal the promise. The ability to send any video content on my iPhone or iPad to the AppleTV, awesome. Consider being at a friend’s house, talking about a funny youtube clip or a movie your friend hasn’t seen. If you’ve got it on an iDevice and he’s got an AppleTV, problem solved. No fussing, no transferring of files, etc. AND the iDevice can keep working while the movie is served in the background! I can’t wait to see what Developers do with it!

THEN it got jailbroken. :)

Right now the jailbreak is rudimentary at best, there’s no Cydia, etc. It’s a tethered Jailbreak, so no more “Let me just restart it”, and all the fun is through SSH. However the other day XBMC was released for the AppleTV/iPad. Running natively on the A4 processor. XBMC allows you to access files over SMB. Now I can fire up my AppleTV reach over to the drobo, and watch Iron Man 2. Well kinda…

The AppleTV is capable of handling (aka loading) a 1080p video, but only outputs 720p video. No biggy but the 1080p files get a bit buffery when playing back, I’m hopeful this is something fixable in firmware (AppleTV) or software (XBMC update). But any 720p or lower rez video file, works like a champ!

The AppleTV has a ton of promise!

OK, GoogleTV.

Like most things Google has done lately, GoogleTV is a half baked solution pushed on consumers before it was ready. Sorry Google, the truth hurts. Not everything can be a Gmail.

The Interface is a bit kludgey, tho the keyboard remote control is nice when setting things up, but then a bit over the top when you just want to fire it up and watch something… oh wait there’s not much to watch…

The HDMI network control, is absolutely BAD ASS! I was talking to a friend, and described it as “Apple Level Magic” I mean, why the heck not have the device turn on the receiver and TV, WITHOUT IR blasters? Well I know why Apple won’t do it, because in exchange for a dead simple and easy experience, you give up a slightly annoying model number hunt during setup, that in theory is a one time thing, it’s a trade off I’d rather not make, because it’s such an awesome and Apple-like feature. Advantage GoogleTV

So back to there being nothing to watch. When I sit down at night and fire up my TV, it’s not to watch youtube. Which is about all there is to watch on GoogleTV. Well you can load up video podcasts, but again, that’s not why I’m in front of my Plasma TV with surround sound. Google has managed to completely piss off every network, so that  there’s NOTHING on GoogleTV. Sure there’s Netflix, but really, EVERYTHING is a Netflix box. My Wii, my PS3, my AppleTV, etc. I don’t need another NetFlix player.

Oh yeah and the promise of connecting to your DVR so you can watch your recorded shows… Only if you’re a dish network subscriber. Google has clearly decided that while they might preach “open” they have no problem making partnerships that effectively close up their platforms. Since I won’t use Dish Network, I’m without the cool DVR functionality, because I don’t use Google’s exclusive partner.

GoogleTV has a lot of promise, the app Market (same as AppleTV, it NEEDS apps) will be a big win, I hope (In vain I’m sure) that google just doesn’t open the flood gates and the market is wide open. Please limit the apps to media apps. I don’t want Angry birds! More than the Market, Google needs to make nice with the TV networks. Figure out how to run their ads, or something, shoot, pay them off for a while until you prove your value to them, something. GoogleTV is a fun toy for many right now, but the appeal of a youtube only set top box will wear off FAST.

Oh yeah, and it’s proving very hard to jailbreak… :(

So current winner: No one, certainly not me! My set up includes a Mac Mini that runs Hulu Desktop, the AppleTV for Netflix, and XBMC, and the GoogleTV for well, nothing right now but it’s plugged in in case a ray of hope comes down the internet for it.

If someone asked me about getting the AppleTV, I’d recommend it with a few warnings. If someone asked me about the GoogleTV, I’d tell them to wait, see if it’s around in a year, and then see if there’s any actual content on it.

Current Loser: The Networks. Why? Well I might expand in another post, but let’s just leave it at, since they won’t let me watch what I want (including ads) via Hulu, I get ad free content elsewhere. Networks, I’m offering you my attention, and have offered you my money, take your head out of your ass before it’s too late!

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Posted in I am a Consumer, Mac, reviews, Technology

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My Review, the iWatch

Posted on October 18, 2010 | 5 Comments

Whether Apple would/will release an iWatch or not has been a source of speculation and flame war for years.

The first thing that came to my mind during the recent Apple event around iPods was “Holy crap, the new nano touch, would make an awesome watch!” I wasn’t alone in that. My Pal Christian made this review before I got mine.

Clearly Apple at least contemplated it as a watch, since it has a built in setting for watch face on wake. Essentially when you touch the wake  up button, it comes to life as a watch. Maybe this is Apple testing the water for an honest to goodness iWatch. I certainly hope so, because as much as I like my iWatch, there’s a few things I’d like to see improved.

The Pros:

It’s an iPod. I mean really, that’s it’s main feature and like all iPods it’s good at what it does. Plug in some headphones and away ya go.

It’s a radio. That’s pretty sweet. I only listen to the radio in the car or the house if we’re cleaning. Plug in headphones (needed as an antenna) and (again) away you go.

It’s a pedometer. While I’m sure being on my wrist is less than accurate, it’s kinda cool to be able to track movement and upload it to nike for their fun little web games. Gimmicky, sure, but fun.

It’s a conversation piece. It’s easily recognizable as an iPod, I’ve had my Vet, counter people, etc all notice, and ask about it. The show-off geek in me loves it!

Changeability. Since it’s not a “real” watch, it doesn’t come with a band. As such you can pick the band(s) you like and change them frequently. I have a plain old nylon band, that Christian mentioned in his review. There’s already a small industry popping up making watch bands just for the iPod Nano Touch, there will be more still.

Covers the basics. It tells time on wake. A swipe to the right and you’re in stop watch mode, another and you’re in timer mode. Done. They covered the three basic features any watch should offer.

The Cons.

It’s an iPod (Features). Being a watch isn’t it’s main purpose in life, as such it tells time well, but if you want adv. features like chrono, multipletime zone support, etc, etc. Look elsewhere.

It’s an iPod (durability). It’s not a g-shock, or even a Citizen. It more or less CAN’T take a beating. It’s not water proof or even really water resistant. The earphone hole is right there, a drop or two of water/rain and bam, no more watch. And because it’s Apple and they don’t believe in rain, no warranty replacement. The face isn’t durable watch crystal it’s glass (as far as I know) a good whack on a corner and you’re likely to be spending another $150ish at the Apple store for a new ‘watch’.

It’s not iOS. When I saw Steve showing the device off, i hoped, really really hoped that being touch enabled, it was running iOS, even if just a subset of iOS. From what I can gather, it’s not. It’s running the more basic iPod firmware with touch added on. I was looking forward to people being able to create their own unique watch faces, or watch apps. Shoot, i’d buy ones that were well made. The other downside of the current firmware is a pretty kludgey way of getting around. Since there’s no “home” button, to get ouf apps you swipe to the left. If you’ve gone deep into the settings app, that’s a lot of swipes. :(

What would make it awesome(r)?

iOS for sure. Or at the least, an SDK. Even if it’s a stepchild SDK like the old ‘Games for Clickwheel iPod’ SDK. Let creative folks have a stab at making it a really fun device. There’s so much potential for this little square. If not iOS, or an SDK, i hope Apple will at least throw a bone or two and update the watch app. Maybe throw in multiple time zone support, or more than two watch faces. Maybe digital? Old school night stand clock? Lots of options!

Long shot, but locking the clip closed? I’m experimenting with which was the clip should face. The iWatch hasn’t fallen off, but it’s come close, and I’m not sure which way I clip it to the band will matter. Will it come off tucking my shirt in, or reaching for my keys? It’d be kind cool to have the clip latch somehow. I know this will never happen though.

User Customization. This sorta falls under the iOS section, but there’s some stuff that coulda just been in the firmware. The iPod allows me to sync photos, but those photos can’t be a background image. There’s 9 built in choices to choose from, but why stop there? Apple has finally gotten over their “users can’t select their own backgrounds” thing, so why not follow that through on the iWatch? Or let me assign an image to the watch face? Black or white are the current options. Why not a picture of my wife and I, or my dog, or a robot?

Final Thoughts.

I went into this knowing the features that existed, so if nothing ever changes and Apple never touches this device again (not unheard of) I’m still happy with it as a watch. I’d love it to do more, but hey, it’s an Apple product, i’d love them all to do a little more than what Apple allows. Maybe someone will jailbreak the iPod Nano Touch? I hope so :)

It’s a fun watch, and a lotta bit geeky. If you’re a hardcore watch person, probably not for you. I love watches, I have a dozen or more, and this iWatch is just a fun little computer on my wrist.

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Posted in Around the Home/Office, I am a Consumer, Mac, Random, reviews, Technology

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