I’ve been searching around for some interesting items to do news postings for The Gadgeteer, and I came across something intriguing.  I had searched Google for “gadget gifts ” and had found one web site that had a thirteen-page list of “gadget guru gifts for guys.”  Male gadget gurus, at least in the opinion of Gifts.com, might enjoy iPod accessories, Flip video cameras, weather stations, picture-taking binoculars, and many other electronic goodies.  There were a few non-tech items, like a coin bank for grown-ups – but even that looked like a computer keyboard key.

Things took a different turn when I decided to search Gifts.com for “gadget gifts for women”.  This time I got a 26-page list of gift ideas.  Sounds great, right?  I expected to find most of the same gadgets on the men’s list, minus a few things like the hot dog rotisserie for the grill, perhaps.  The other thirteen pages I thought would have cases in more feminine colors, maybe some organizing wallets, even perhaps one of those metal hangers that keeps your purse off the floor at restaurants.  The people at Gifts.com saw things differently.

The gadget gifts for women included some nice cases for laptops and gadgets, as I expected.  It had several gadget-type toys for kids – I guess only women buy toys for their kids, or perhaps only they are expected to play with their kids?  They even had a book about gadgets for guys – that was recommended as a Father’s Day gift for your husband or dad.  Not a lot of electronics on that list – unless you count the digital timer for your kitchen.  (I know I don’t count that!)

Most of the gadget gifts for women consisted of kitchen items:  a tri-blade peeler, a knife block, trivets, a wooden cutting board branded with the family name, and even a set of melamine measuring cups!  Okay, I might allow them to call these things kitchen gadgets, but why are they only suggested for women?  Men cook, too.

Things I do not allow to use the gadget name, but were on the gadget list for women, include:  perfume, boots, oven mitts, and lovely “girls’ night out” t-shirts emblazoned with “You Can’t Afford Me” and “Boy Scouting”.   Come on!  Unless the perfume comes in some sort of air-brushing gun with an air compressor, how could anyone call it a gadget?

When I was a kid, things were considered to be either for girls or for boys.  My father wouldn’t let me have a little race car set when I was twelve because it was a boys’ toy.  He would make me stand and hand him tools while he worked on our cars, but he wouldn’t explain what he was doing.  My sisters and I were expected to help keep the house clean, but we apparently weren’t capable of using tools to change a spark plug.  But isn’t that nurture, not nature?  Was I the only girl who wanted “boys’ things?”

When I got a job, I had money to buy my own gadgets.  I started out with stereo and television equipment.  I moved on to computers, PDAs, iPods, ebook readers …  But never a set of melamine measuring cups.

I don’t have a deep technical knowledge of electronic gadgetry, but I know what I like and I know how to use those things.  Eventually even my father came around.  He once refused to let his nephew – who owned a television repair business – hook up the new television my sisters and I bought him as a gift.  He told his nephew “Janet’s going to hook it up.  She knows how to hook up my satellite and my stereo to my TV.”  I truly was proud to hear him say that.

Have things changed at all since I was a girl?  I know my fourteen-year-old daughter, Rachel,  is being raised differently than I was.  She’s never heard “no, that’s not for girls.”  Rachel loves her gadgets.  She likes the look and feel of the electronics, and she doesn’t want them covered up with cases.  She got her first PDA (a hand-me-down) when she was in kindergarten, and it was loaded up with ebooks and games.  She can’t live without her iPod and her laptop.  The few times she’s been grounded, the punishment is to take away her electronics.  She IS a bit of a Luddite when it comes to books.  She owns a Sony ebook reader, but she prefers paper books.  I will admit she doesn’t know how to work on cars – neither her Dad nor I can teach her how.

Are people like Julie, Rachel, and me really so different?  Do most women really not like gadgets, or do manufacturers and retailers just have the wrong idea?  Julie pointed out to me that there are more things designed for women now, like pink cases and laptop bags.  She did stress that electronics designed for women, like the Vivienne Tam netbook, are rare.  But making something pink doesn’t necessarily make it appeal to women – it just guarantees it won’t appeal to men!  As far as bags go, I would prefer a bag that has lots of storage space for my laptop, my phone, my iPod, my Sony reader, a ton of cables and chargers for my phone, my Bluetooth earbud, and everything else I’ve mentioned – but not be the size of a truck.  I want the same electronic devices and computers that men want – but would a nice color kill them?  Something other than black, silver, or pink?

What do you think?  Do you find that people in your circle follow the traditional gender roles?  When it comes to gadgets, are men really from Mars and women from the kitchen?

Filed in categories: Articles

Tagged: Article, Opinion

Are Gadgets Just for Guys? originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 16, 2009 at 10:40 am.

Name: Tynan
Location: Somewhere on the globe

I sold it all. The rack with 8 rackmount servers in it, the four robomowers, the two extra laptops, the projector, home theater PC, and the stereo system. Huge bags full of every cable and adapter ever made (in triplicate) were thrown into the trash.

When the dust settled I was left with nothing to my name other than a small school sized backpack and its contents. And it was with this bag and a good friend that I set out to travel around the world indefinitely.

But gadgeteer roots die hard. Inside the unassuming backpack were the results of months of research, reading reviews, and product testing. My friend Todd and I had assembled the ultimate collection of electronics, gadgets, and gear to cover our daily work as well as any possible contingency that may come up.

Here’s what we brought:

The Laptop: Lenovo X61 Tablet PC

The X61 Tablet PC is the best tablet available on the market. The 12″ screen packs a 1400×1050 resolution, which is better than most 19+” monitors. I do all of my work on the laptop, so it’s important to have a lot of workspace.

The tablet feature is extremely useful for the faxes I inevitably have to send, and the forms that need to be filled out (quick tip: if you don’t have a tablet, scan your signature before going on a trip).

I’m always partial to Thinkpads anyway. The build quality is higher than any other laptop I’ve used (and I’ve used a lot…), and I love the eraser like TrackPoint. Now that I’m used to it I actually greatly prefer it over a regular mouse (thus the Mogo got sold before I left).

The laptop has a fingerprint reader and I’ve encrypted my files so that if it gets stolen on the road I don’t have to worry. I use Super Flexible File Synchronizer to synchronize my important files every night automatically.

Bonus: I use the new Lenovo slim 90W AC/DC adapter. It’s very thin and works in airplanes and rental cars, as well as the more standard home outlets.

The Phone: Nokia E90

Once again, the Nokia was mainly chosen because of its resolution. The inside screen is 800×352 which makes it easy to look at maps with the built in Nokia Maps, use SlovoEd to translate things, or view web pages.

The Nokia has a built in GPS which takes a little longer to lock than a regular automotive GPS, but once it’s locked it works just as well. Nokia provides maps of most areas of the world for free with navigation available at a reasonable rate.

Perhaps the best thing about the E90 is that it supports VOIP calls, so I can call back to the US for under 2 cents per minute whenever I’m near wifi.

The Watch: Suunto X9mi

Sometimes the phone runs out of batteries, or gets left at home by accident. The Suunto X9mi is the best (possibly the only) watch with built in GPS navigation. Other GPS watches will tell you your speed and distance, but the Suunto X9mi has the additional function of navigating to waypoints.

That means that we use the watches as odometers when we run, but then we also use it to find our favorite restaurants. Here in Tokyo they don’t really have addresses, so we rely completely on the E90 and these watches.

The watch also has a bunch of other features like an altimeter (I used it for skydiving), a barometer, a stopwatch, and a thermometer.

The Camera: Epson R-D1S

I would give a kidney (or a kid if I had any) before I gave up this camera. It’s a digital rangefinder, which is a type of camera that most people have never heard of. It’s manual focus, manual aperture, manual ISO, and no zoom. But, it’s WAY smaller (half the size in volume) of even a small SLR, but it has the same exact sensor as an SLR and uses high quality Leica lenses.

Here are the pictures I’ve taken with it on the trip: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22377643@N08/

The Video Camera: JVC GZ-HD7

I carry the digital camera and my friend carries this video camera. Despite being relatively tiny it records in full HD at 1920x1080i and stores it all on a built in 60gb drive. That means that when we go on little side trips we don’t need to worry about offloading video or taking a bunch of tapes.

The one downside to this camera is that the anti-shake isn’t great, but the incredible image quality makes up for it.

The Media Player: Creative ZEN 16gb

I wish I had the 32gb, but it wasn’t out when we left on the trip. The ZEN is the best player around. I’ve always hated ipods with the stupid scroll wheels and form-over-function priorities.

This player gets 52 hours of audio playback, sounds fantastic, weighs next to nothing, and has a good screen for watching TV shows. It has real buttons with tactile feedback so you can change the song while it’s in your jacket pocket or while you’re driving.

Capacity can be expanded with an SD card and it charges with a tiny little USB cable that’s also used to transfer songs. Perfect for traveling.

The Headphones: Etymotic Research ER-4S

I’ve heard that the Shure headphones rival or even beat the Etys, but I’ve had these for ten years now and they’ve never let me down. Getting perfect sound from a speaker system costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. The equivalent fidelity (minus the thumping bass, of course) can be achieved for just a few hundred dollars with the Etymotic Research headphones.

Forget BOSE noise cancellation headphones with mediocre quality. These troopers actually block MORE sound just by insulating you from it. Sometimes I leave them in to sleep on the plane even if I’m not listening to music.

The Plug Converter: APC INPA

Like most people, perhaps even you, I never really cared about plug converters. They were clunky collections of plastic adapters that fit clumsily in a cloth bag. Not anymore. The APC INPA is a brilliant piece of design that combines every possible plug you’d need into a very small package.

It’s two ways, as well. You can plug a Russian cord into a Taiwanese socket just as easily as you can plug a Taiwanese cord into a Russian socket.

The Flashlight: Arc-AAA Premium

Want a bright flashlight that is barely bigger than the battery that powers it? I haven’t found anything better than this. Well, except for the new one they came out with after I left that’s 20% brighter. Man, I wish I had that one.

I used this when the shower light went out in a Tokyo apartment we rented as well as when I was running laps around a deserted island at night to exercise. Whenever I hold it I’m awed by how bright it is.

That’s about all the gear we have, other than chargers. We’ve been on the road (skies?) for two and a half months now and haven’t missed anything we left behind, other than the people.

To read more about our trip, go to www.lifenomadic.com. I also have a site where I recommend the very best gear in the world at www.bestintheland.com.

Filed in categories: Articles

Tagged: Article, Featured Gadgeteer

Read About Featured Gadgeteer – Tynan originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 26, 2008 at 8:30 pm.

Every year right after the holidays, it’s time for two trade shows that most gadgeteers look forward to either attending or reading about. These are The Consumer Electronics Show and Macworld. I’ve attended CES many times in the past, but this year I wanted to do something different… So, I decided to attend my very first Macworld in San Francisco, California. It’s about time, considering that I made the hop to OS X over two years ago.

I ended up getting some great accommodations at the Westin San Francisco Market Street Hotel.

I found the room to be spacious and clean.

Although I didn’t plan to watch much TV while on my trip, I appreciated the nice flat screen.

Check out the view from my room. The building in the center of the picture is the Metreon. Right behind it is the Moscone Center where Macworld Conference and Expo is held. I was within super easy walking distance. Nice!

My only complaint about the Westin was their wifi. It was worse than dialup speeds… and no, I’m not exaggerating. Disappointing since it costs $15 a day…

The expo was held in the West and South halls. As a veteran of CES and its millions of square footage of exhibits, I wasn’t sure what to expect with Macworld. So I laced up my New Balance sneaks, grabbed my camera and trotted over to the South hall after having ‘listened’ to Steve Jobs’ keynote on my laptop in the hotel.

Nope, I wasn’t lucky enough to score a ticket to the keynote. That’s fine though, I hate standing in line for stuff and I was pretty much first in line to get onto the floor as soon as the exhibits opened.

I did fear for my life a little with everyone piling up to get into the exhibit area. Once the let everyone in, I headed straight for the Right side of the room to begin my exploration.

My first stop was the Comply booth. They sell soft foam replacement tips for earbuds and Whoomp! earbud enhancers.

Do you remember Griffin’s EarJams, the little snap on caps that turned stock iPod earbuds into in-the-ear style buds? Whoomps are similar, but with flexible plastic instead of rigid, and soft foam buds instead of rubber buds. They also sound a lot better than the EarJams from what I recall of them.

Next up was the eMedia booth. They were demoing a software title that helps kids learn to play guitar. But, when I learned that the software didn’t interface with the instrument, I quickly lost interest and moved on…

…to the Kensington booth. Besides their wireless Ci70 desktop set and Ci75 notebook mouse that I have already reviewed, they were also showing their latest SlimBlade mice and keyboard. These mice have little track balls in them similar to Apple’s Mighty mouse. I use the Ci75 notebook mouse for travel and really like it, but I’m anxious to try one of these SlimBlade mice soon too.

booq’s booth (say that 3 times fast…) was kinda creepy with Black mannequins sporting gear bags ;o) They were showing their latest Boa Slimcase bags that Dave just reviewed.

h2oAudio were displaying some very cool looking waterproof iPod cases. I have to say that these look way better than the ones Otterbox offers. Sorry Otterbox…

They have actual buttons instead of a membrane that you press through.

I was happy to meet the folks from Sena. I’ve dealt with them for years and it was nice to meet them in person.

They had some great looking iPhone cases on display. I’ll be posting a review of some of them in the next week or two, so stay tuned.

There were many companies showing off laptop bags at the show like this booth from Mary Beth Designs. It’s always nice to see gear / laptop bags that cater to women.

Griffin was in attendance with iPod accessories like this new version of the iTrip.

Another company that I was happy to meet in person was Matias. They were showing off their iFold and folding keyboard.

The iFold is a collapsable laptop stand this is available now

The folding keyboard is due out soon. It’s USB and when folded is only 10.08” x 5” x 1.18”.

I purposely did not seek out the Apple area right away as I knew it would be completely mobbed with people trying to get a look at the new Macbook Air. Of course by the time I got around to where it was being displayed, it was still swamped.

I want several Macbook Airs hanging from my ceiling please.

Dang these babies are thin!

There was a long table with many, many Macbook Airs for people to try. I shoved my way into the mob so that I could get a look close up. I have to say wow. Seeing it in person is better than just looking at these pictures. The display is so bright and crisp that I didn’t even think that they were real working notebooks at first.

The trackpad is significantly larger on this new notebook. The size allows for gesture use. You’re all familiar with the pinch and spread gestures on the iPhone to shrink and grow images and text? Well, you can use these same gestures now on the Macbook Air. Very cool.

I own a Macbook Pro, so I’m not familiar with the new style keyboard that Macbooks and now the Macbook Air use. I wasn’t able to really test it there at the show, but I keep hearing how people really like it. I will say that the backlight feature is pretty sweet.

Itty bitty magsafe power cord.

Pop open earphone jack, USB port and proprietary micro DVI jack.

I’m hearing as many people praising this new laptop as those dissing it. I have to say that after lugging around my Macbook Pro through the airport, I would welcome something so thin and light weight. For me, I don’t care that it doesn’t have a removable battery or a built in ethernet jack. I know that many people like to have a spare battery, but this isn’t important to me since I don’t typically find myself on flights longer than 4-5hrs at a time. Regarding the ethernet jack, I can’t remember the last time I used mine… wifi all the way baby ) Will I be buying one? Yeah probably at some point…

Next up was the XtremeMac booth…

Oh look, they have a new X2Luna iPod clock radio. I reviewed their previous version and found it to be one of my favorite products in this category.

Their Tango Studio speaker looked nice as well. One cool feature is that the LED display shines through the speaker material. It stays lit for a few seconds whenever a setting is changed, and then fades to Black.

The Tango X2 has the same display feature.

More laptop bags. These are from (I think…) STM. I don’t see these particular bags on their website though.

At this point my eyes were starting to glaze over as I was getting a bit bored of all the laptop bags, iPod / iPhone cases and iPod speakers everyone was showing. But as I turned the corner, my eyes instantly brightened when I saw Axiotron’s booth for the Modbook.

They had a couple devices on display so that people could try them out. I was surprised that I didn’t have to actually touch the stylus to the display in order to write on it.

I even got the opportunity to talk to the man that builds the Modbooks…

They had an artist giving a demonstration using the Modbook and Photoshop.

Creative was showing off their XDock HD iPod video dock.

They had it showing Mission Impossible III on a flat screen TV and I have to say it looked really sharp. Too bad it’s not available until sometime this Spring.

The ZIVIO Bluetooth headset from Joby caught my eye as I walked past their booth.

The interesting thing about the ZIVIO is that it has a telescoping microphone that extends from the body of the headset. As you extend the microphone, it adjusts the gain accordingly.

When I was looking at the laptop bags in the STM booth, one of the guys there had asked if I had seen the really cool office chair that was being demoed somewhere on the floor. So, when I saw the booth with a banner with Swing Seat emblazoned on it, I stopped for a closer look. As soon as someone vacated one, I tested it myself. The seat and back both pivot up/down, back and forth as you move or adjust your position. It was kind of odd, but at the same time quite comfortable. I still haven’t purchased a new office chair for gadgeteer hq, so I might have to look into one of these…

These little pop open x-mini iPod speakers are cute and sounded surprisingly good.

I was happy to see the folks from audioengine at the show. Their A5 speakers remain my favorites.

I almost started drooling when I saw that they are going to offer the A5′s in bamboo. Nice!

At this point, I realized that I had seen all the booths. I think I might have set a record as it only took me about 4 hours to do the whole show. Wow, compare that to 2-3 days for CES (and even then you don’t see EVERYTHING), I was sure that I had to have missed a bunch! So I grabbed my handy guide book with the floor plans and exhibitor’s listing and carefully checked to see if I had skipped anything important. Nope, I had seen it all…

Near the door was the pzizz booth. I had reviewed one of their handheld nap personal Life Coach devices, but they were also showing these wacky looking nap pod things. They are called Metro Naps. I don’t know if I could fall asleep in one of those things. I’d be thinking that there were people outside pointing and laughing at the goober (me) inside. ;o)

I found Macworld to be quite a bit less stressful than CES. Of course that’s because it’s much smaller. But that said, I wasn’t really blown away by anything at the show. I would have loved to see more unique accessories and gadgets. As it were, there were too many iPhone cases, speakers and laptop bags for my taste. There was only a very short list of things that made my gadget senses tingle. The Macbook Air was one of them, along with the Modbook, ZIVIO Bluetooth headset and Audioengine bamboo speakers. If I hadn’t come to San Francisco to spend a few days doing other things, then I would have been somewhat disappointed. I’m not sure I’ll return in 2009, but I do know I’ll definitely make the trip west again at some point to attend this show.

For those of you that attended, what were you favorite things?

Filed in categories: Articles

Tagged: Article, Trip Report

Macworld Expo 2008 originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 22, 2008 at 10:05 pm.

Gadgeteer Spotlight articles are short informal interviews with some of this industry’s most influential and interesting people. Gain some insight and learn some interesting facts about the people behind some of our favorite gadgets, gizmos and gear.

Today we sit down (virtually) with John Starkweather of Microsoft. John is the International Director of Product Management for the Entertainment and Devices Division. John is responsible for Windows Mobile product and partner marketing in the division’s Mobile Communications Business. John’s team functions as the marketing interface between the product planning and go-to-market teams for the entire Asia Pacific and European regions. I know John as the enthusiastic person behind the ever enjoyable annual Mobius events.

John in Singapore

How long have you been involved with the Windows Mobile / Mobius group at Microsoft?

I started with Windows Mobile just before the first Pocket PC phones were coming to market. However, I’d been working with Sierra Wireless in late nineties where we built wireless data cards for version 1 Windows CE devices – the old Handheld PC days. So I’ve been involved with Microsoft’s mobile platforms several times over a decade.

Is this your dream job?

That’s a difficult question. As a kid I loved to tinker with gadgets and I was an entrepreneur: I’d had four businesses by the time I entered college. But I never dreamed of working at Microsoft. Growing up close to Silicon Valley, my skewed image of big companies was IBM: suit and tie, chained to a desk, counting beans. This was definitely not me.

Microsoft is nothing like what I imagined big companies to be when I was a kid: it’s entrepreneurial, suits are not allowed and I’m traveling the world – definitely not chained to a desk. And I can’t neglect to mention the gadgets – I’ve got access to everything, and we’re creating the future; it’s definitely one dream job.

If there was one thing that you could change about Windows Mobile right now, what would it be?

The big one for me, and something that is being addressed by our team now, is simplifying the process for people to customize a device and make it truly their own. I’m talking about a spectrum of things from the simple (making your own ringtones and wallpaper) to more the more advanced tasks like adding applications that fit your work/lifestyle. You’ve always been able to customize a Windows Mobile device, but I think making it easier is extremely important. Phones have become intimately personal things – definitely more so than any other product and probably person in our lives. We believe people want the freedom to customize a phone to make it their own.

As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

As a kid we were friends with a family who had a professional drag racing team. We spent a lot of time watching races, and hanging out with other racers. I wanted nothing more than to grow up and go fast – I even dreamed of someday joining General Motors’ sports division where they turned typical cars into lust-worthy machines. To this day the smell of burning rubber mixed with nitrous is intoxicating.

Where do you call home?

It may sound corny, but ‘home’ is with my family – currently we’re living in Singapore. But I’ll always be an American country boy at heart. I spent my teenage years in country town of Hollister, California; sorry to the burst the bubble of kids who overpaid for Hollister clothing, but Hollister is a farming town – the high school mascot is a Hay Baler.

I know you are probably constantly playing with lots of different devices all the time, but which phones do you keep coming back to and use on a daily basis?

The HTC S620, also known as the Excalibur, T-Mobile Dash, etc. For some reason every time I go back to this phone I feel like I’ve gone home. For me, it’s hands down the best QWERTY keyboard design built to date. I just wish HTC would take the same form factor and add 3G, and throw out the Joggr strip in the process; and add a higher-resolution screen, more memory and faster processor. I think HTC tried this with the Cavalier, but they added some bulk and the battery life was nowhere near the 2+ days I get with the S620. As you can tell, it’s tough for somebody who plays with a lot of phones to be content. But bottom line: HTC created a winner here. It also doesn’t hurt that Microsoft uses this device for a lot of future software testing; in fact I’m using a future version of Windows Mobile on the phone now…

What is your primary computer?

My primary machine – a Toshiba M7 Tablet with Windows Vista – is nearing the end of its life cycle. I’m about to order one of the small solid-state drive Sony Vaios (love the idea of getting 9 hours on a single battery) and a HTC Shift.

What is your favorite gadget right now?

This is definitely the hardest question, I own and use a dozen different Windows Mobile phones at any given time – not to mention I’ve recently been using an iPhone and a N82. But the phone I’m carrying on trips this week to Australia, China and Japan is a HTC TyTn II – it’s definitely one of the best touch-screen Windows Mobile phones available today.

What is your all time favorite gadget?

My first radar detector. My need for speed drew a lot of tickets…

John on his Suzuki Hayabusa (world’s fastest production motorcycle) on the Oregon coast; notice the Garmin GPS unit on handlebars, headphones into helmet

What car do you drive?

Singapore is so small and congested that I don’t drive much anymore – which is tough on a car guy. But I have my first car – a restored 1968 RS/SS Camaro – in storage in the US.

Which gear bag do you use and what is in it right now?

Skooba backpack

Laptop
Ultimate Ears headphones
Canon Digital Elph camera
San Disk Cruzer Mini 2GB thumb drive
Western Digital 200 GB portable hard drive
San Disk 2-in-1 mini and micro SD adapter
Pre-paid SIM cards for China, US and the UK
Radio Shack worldwide travel plug adapter
Mini-USB cable
Network cable
Oakley Razrwire Sunglasses
Motorola S9 stereo Bluetooth headphones
Phones: HTC TyTn II, HTC S720, T-Mobile Shadow, Motorola Q9H, Samsung i-620
Assortment of drugs: Tylenol, Advil, Sudafed, Claritin, Ambien
Peanut M&Ms

Outside of your day job, what other activities / hobbies do you enjoy?

I’m a huge fan of the outdoors: camping, backpacking, canoeing (just did the Singapore version – Dragon Boats). Nothing is more relaxing than sitting on the shore of a mountain lake, skipping rocks along the surface with my kids and nothing but pine trees and white-capped mountains to keep us company.

Thanks John!

Filed in categories: Articles

Tagged: Article, Gadgeteer Spotlight

Gadgeteer Spotlight on John Starkweather of Microsoft originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 21, 2008 at 4:22 pm.

Gadgeteer Spotlight articles are short informal interviews with some of this industry’s most influential and interesting people. Gain some insight and learn some interesting facts about the people behind some of our favorite gadgets, gizmos and gear.

Today we sit down (virtually) with John Hindaly of Vaja…

John sporting a Vaja messenger bag

When was Vaja first started?

My first steps in the leather cases arena began in 1989… a lot of things happened in the middle… till we create “Vaja” the brand in 1998. However the actual company vajacases.com started in 1999..

What prompted you to start the company?

I was just trying to create a good leather case for my Palm III, I wanted something different, I was basically focusing on the look and feel, as this was the case that I wanted for me. When we finished it, the WOW factor was all over it. At the same time I was spending a lot of time surfing the web…

So one day everything seems to puzzle… and our first website, debuted in 1999, it was basically a catalogue….. without e-commerce… in Spanish…

What was the first product that you put on the market?

The Classic book style case for Palm III was our first product…

The first Vaja product that I reviewed on The Gadgeteer was The Palm V case back in 2000. Does that bring back any memories?

Oh, yes, it brings back some fantastic thoughts…following your first review we start selling to the US market, and our web page was all in Spanish, So I had to personally answer all the emails and translate everything to any possible customer… it was a lot of work, but it was well worth it.. we started to have a good base of US customers… and some months later we finally upload the English version of the site…

The Vaja team at a company party in 2006

How many employees do you have?

Now we are more than 70 persons working behind Vaja, and we manage to design, develop and produce our site and cases in house…

Artisan’s hard at work making cases we all drool over

Stitching…

More stitching…

Final touches on a handcrafted case…

What do you like most about your job?

Ok, what I most like about my job… is working with our design team, brainstorming over the upcoming products… and also I love to work with our web development team, trying to improve our site every day…

Where do you call home?

Buenos Aires, Argentina… I love this city.

What mobile phone do you currently use?

I usually change my mobile phone every week, as I’m constantly beta testing all of the cases that we design… when you send me the interview my primary phone was a Motorola V3i, now I’m using an iPhone…

What PDA (if you use one) do you currently use?

Same as the Mobile phones, I’m constantly changing my PDA, If I have to choose I keep the Treo 700p as my primary PDA.

What is your primary computer?

Mac Book Pro 17″ with Intel core duo processor.

What is your favorite gadget right now?

The Nintendo Wii and my iPhone.

What is your all time favorite gadget?

My first computer a Sinclair 1000 and my Atari 2600, those two gadgets change my mind and my life…

Do you have any hobbies?

I have a small farm outside the city, that’s my weekend hobby right now, and my full time hobby… are my two daughters… Juana & Lola…

What car do you drive?

I drive a Land Rover Defender TD5 and a Volkswagen Vento FSI.

Which gear bag do you use and what is in it right now?

Of course I carry one of our Messenger bags, made in a very special and unique leather “renato carchofa” that i love… I put a lot of stuff that I rarely use… but I still carry it everywhere…

I have an Ipod 80gb, some magazines, work papers, pens, keys, a lot of black and color pencils and some white papers where I love to draw whenever I have some free minutes…

Thanks John!

Filed in categories: Articles

Tagged: Article, Gadgeteer Spotlight

Gadgeteer Spotlight on John Hindaly of Vaja originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 6, 2007 at 9:21 pm.

Gadgeteer Spotlight articles are short informal interviews with some of this industry’s most influential and interesting people. Gain some insight and learn some interesting facts about the people behind some of our favorite gadgets, gizmos and gear.

Today we sit down (virtually) with Brando Ng of Brando Workshop…

When was Brando Workshop first started?

2001.

What prompted you to start the company?

In 1998, I started up www.brando.com.hk, a Palm related informative personal website where I shared my Palm knowledge and everything related to Palm with many Palm users and friends. Since then, my website has become well-known in Hong Kong PDA user groups. The increasing number of Palm users as well as the popularity of mobile devices inspired me to start a business specializing in PDA accessories.

What was the first product that you put on the market?

It was a plastic PDA Case called Pal Pal Twister, later on we made a screen protector and it became the most well known product in our company.

The Pal Pal Twistor for the Palm V was the first product from your shop that you ever sent me to review. That was back in 2000:
http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/review/pal_pal_twistor_review. Remember the Palm V? Wow, PDAs sure have come a long way since then, don’t you agree?

Yes, and I loved the Palm V very much, and used it to read lots of electronic books. It could do everything, a wonderful machine gun!! I used it to check e-mail, read news, read books, store my address book, view pictures (B&W), and even used it as a remote control. It kept all my personal data and schedule plans and was always kept in my pocket!

How many different products do your shops currently sell?

Approximately two thousand items of PDA accessories and three thousand of others.

How many employees do you have?

13 employees and some business partners, 17 people in the same office.

Any hints you want to give the readers on new products or product categories that you might be adding soon?

Funny, innovative gadgets.

Where do you call home?

Hong Kong.

What mobile phone do you currently use?

The iPhone and SAMSUNG U708.

What PDA (if you use one) do you currently use?

The Palm Tungsten T3 is still the best device for me to carry my personal data since 1997.
This platform is actually called PERSONAL DIGITAL ASSISTANT (PDA) which helps me to carry all my data in any circumstances, no matter changing PDA device or changing PC. It has a backup on the PC and the PDA, you have no worry about data being lost! I hate those devices which cannot transfer your data to a new device or new desktop, that is not an ASSISTANT, that is a burden instead.

What is your primary computer?

My first computer was an Apple II, which someone sold me for US$100 in 1986. However, due to the incompatible software and the application usage, I changed to IBM/DOS compatible computer, and currently to a Windows PC that I built myself.

What is your favorite gadget right now?

The iPhone, definitely iPhone. I found it had the shadow of Palm, also with a good OS platform inside. People can do development on it, there are lots of 3rd parties applications/games/utilities online now. I believe it will become more popular soon! Besides, Canon Xh-A1 and Canon 40D help me on taking nice baby videos and pictures, their quality is nice.

What is your all time favorite gadget?

Palm helps me a lot! No matter on daily life or on business, it helps me on everything.

What do you like to do when you’re doing working? Any hobbies?

I like ball games, I can play almost all of them, such as table tennis, football, basketball.

What car do you drive?

Mercedes Benz SLK 350 and a Honda Stream

Which gear bag do you use and what is in it right now?

Well, it’s not a special gear bag, just a Porter bag from Japan, its quality is good. I have a Palm Tungsten T3, iPhone, SAMSUNG U708 and a Toshiba 1.8″ HDD inside.

Thanks Brando! I appreciate you allowing me to do this interview and I look forward to reviewing many more of your products in the future!

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Tagged: Article, Gadgeteer Spotlight

Gadgeteer Spotlight on Brando Ng of Brando’s Workshop originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 1, 2007 at 11:32 am.

Gadgeteer Spotlight articles are short informal interviews with some of this industry’s most influential and interesting people. Gain some insight and learn some interesting facts about the people behind some of our favorite gadgets, gizmos and gear.

Today we sit down (virtually) with Peter Rojas (Editorial Director) and Ryan Block (Editor-in-Chief) of Engadget.com…

Peter and Ryan, gadget rock stars

When was Engadget first started?

Peter: March of 2004.

Peter, did you originally start Engadget with Ryan or did he come along once it was already established?

Peter: I originally started Engadget, and suckered Ryan into writing for me in June of 2004.

Ryan, did you already know Peter before you joined the site?

Ryan: Yeah, we knew each other from around town, mutual friends. Pete and I have different versions of the story of the night we met, but both stories more or less involve he and I getting in a fight about laptops, and not really liking one another for a while. We should have read the signs — we were obviously way more similar than different!

How many employees does Engadget have now?

Peter: Four full-time editors and an amazing crew of freelance contributors and columnists.
Ryan: …we actually just hired our fifth full time editor this week! I don’t think Pete counted himself, but that’d be six…

I know Peter had a stint on HGTV demoing gadgets for the I Want That! Tech Toys show. Any plans for more face time on TV?

Peter: No, but perhaps at some future point. I like doing TV, but it totally doesn’t come natural to me. I find it to be a LOT harder than blogging.

Ryan, do you have aspirations to be in front of the camera too?

Ryan: I’m with Pete, on-camera work is a lot harder than it looks. I’ve been doing some video for Engadget lately, but I know my strengths aren’t in hosting. I do hope Pete does some more TV though, if I’m anything to go by then he’s pretty friggin’ talented at it.

Peter where do you call home?

Peter: I live in Manhattan, but have been spending most of this summer in California.

How about you Ryan?

Ryan: I spent a while in New York, but I moved to SF just over a year ago — I’m still getting adjusted to the pace, but I really love it out here.

I know you both are constantly playing with new phones all the time, just like I do, but what phones do you keep coming back to and use on a daily basis?

Peter: I’m still using a Treo, currently have a Treo 700p, which I tolerate more than I love. It’s sort of the least bad option for me given what I need out of a phone, it seems like there’s a trade-off with every smartphone out there these days.

Ryan: For a while the device I kept coming back to was the HTC TyTn / Hermes. And then along came the iPhone, which has so many issues of its own, but so many things I instantly couldn’t live without (like visual voicemail, the browser, etc.). I still look longingly at the Hermes on my desk, though.

What is your primary computer?

Peter: When I’m at home I do most of my writing on a beat up old HP that I’ve tricked out, but I’m on the road for two months this summer, so right now my main machine is a Dell X1. It’s served me well.

Ryan: Well, on my desk right now I have a Vista Ultimate box (with Drobo) next to a MacBook Pro — but obviously it’s the laptop that walks out the door with me.

What is your favorite gadget right now?

Peter: The Xbox 360, even though I never have enough time to get at any of the games I buy.

Ryan: Tough call. It’s so easy for me to say my Sharp HDTV, since that’s the conduit all these great devices are pushed through — but if you wanted to be really specific, my TiVo Series3 and Xbox 360 are at the top of the heap for favorite gadgets that don’t leave the house. I know you didn’t ask, but my least favorite gadget was the POS Comcast HD DVR the Series3 replaced. That thing caused me so much friggin’ heartache.

What is your all time favorite gadget?

Peter: I don’t think I’ve ever given a consistent answer to this question! Might be the 14-hour Series 1 TiVo I got when it first came out. Totally amazed everyone who came over that I could pause live TV. Still works, too, I gave it to a friend of mine a few months ago. Though I’d have to say that my favorite was the Sony D-88 Discman my dad gave me for Christmas when I was 12, it was designed to play 3-inch CD singles.

Ryan: Tough call! On the nostalgia tip, it might have to be a tie between NES, SNES, and original Game Boy. I think those were instrumental in my gadget lust, they were just so different from everything else out at the time. Remember the N64 kid? ( http://youtube.com/watch?v=pFlcqWQVVuU ) That was totally me for the original Game Boy. If I had to pick something else, it might be these crazy Japanese robotics sets that my parents got for me as a kid. To this day I still don’t know what they were (it wasn’t Macross or anything like that), but I’ve always been obsessed with robots.

What car do you both drive?

Peter: I’ve never owned a car.

Ryan: No car! I’m actually waiting for a mass-market electric, or at very least an hybrid with an electric drivetrain, like the Chevy Volt.

Which gear bag do you use and what is in it right now?

Peter: I bit Ryan’s style and got a black Jack Spade messenger bag. Usually carries my X1, my Sansa e280, a Sprint USB EV-DO modem, and a notepad for jotting down ideas (for some reason I prefer taking notes on paper than on my Treo).

Ryan: I have this totally nondescript Jack Spade messenger bag, which actually makes for a fantastic gadget tote. You’d normally catch me with my laptop, Panasonic point and shoot, EV-DO modem, a bunch of expense receipts, and whatever seven phones I’m testing that week. And a few pens — I’m totally with Peter, it’s hard to imagine something replacing a pen and paper.

Outside of the running Engadget, what are your other interests / hobbies?

Peter: Right now I’m spending most of my spare time on RCRD LBL, this new all-digital record label I’m starting with the guys from Downtown Records, but when I do have a free moment I like to read (real, actual books!) and go to the movies (NYC is great because it gets every independent and foreign movie).

Ryan: I’m fairly average in my extracurricular pursuits, I guess — a bit of city biking, exploring SF parks (plus the occasional movie in the Dolores park, which is always a good time), some Xbox when the mood strikes, slowly trying to work my way through countless books I probably should have long since read. I also spend a lot of time in local coffee shops, it’s kind of like the new bar hopping.

Thanks guys! Engadget is one of a few sites that I visit multiple times each day. Keep up the exhaustive onslaught of gadgets!

Filed in categories: Articles

Tagged: Article, Gadgeteer Spotlight

Gadgeteer Spotlight on Peter Rojas and Ryan Block of Engadget.com originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 30, 2007 at 4:25 pm.

Gadgeteer Spotlight articles are short informal interviews with some of this industry’s most influential and interesting people. Gain some insight and learn some interesting facts about the people behind some of our favorite gadgets, gizmos and gear.

Today we sit down (virtually) with Michael Hess of RoadWired.com…

Michael with gear bags galore!

When was RoadWired first started?

December, 1999, but we officially launched the business on January 1st, 2000 and the website in June/July of the same year. This year, we are going through a major transition, changing the name of the company to “Skooba Design,” to reflect the evolution and design/marketing direction of the company.

What prompted you to start the company?

My family had a well-known, 50 year-old business manufacturing professional photographic equipment and accessories–everything from darkroom equipment (anyone remember that?) to flash accessories, tripods, camera bags and much more. We were also the largest publisher of photographic “how-to” books in the industry. When we sold the business in 1998, I worked for the new owners for a little while but then got the itch to do something new. Laptop computers and certainly handhelds–there was pretty much just the Palm Pilot back then– were still relatively small markets then compared to now, but the coming wave was pretty obvious. I had already sketched and filed lots of “napkin and back-of-envelope” drawings of bags and accessories for that emerging market, so I decided to stay in the soft goods end of things and start an upscale carrying case company that went beyond photography into many other areas of portable technology.

What was the first product that you put on the market?

The 36-pocket “MegaMedia” Bag–still being sold successfully seven years later. It has its own mini cult-following among the ultra-tech-organized set. We even have one customer in our “hall of fame” who has taken the bag to something like 100 countries and sends us pictures and stories of him with his MegaMedia from all over the world. We posted one of his bag-travelogues to our “customer hall of fame”

The first RoadWired product that I reviewed on The Gadgeteer was The Pod Bag back in 2002. I believe you still sell this exact bag! How have things changed at RoadWired since 2002?

We do indeed still sell The Pod, as well as its bigger cousin the “Podzilla” and other products in that product family, and they remain popular. But for sure, things have changed a lot in those 5 years. Aside from just the growth of the business in general—both domestically and internationally—our product portfolio and design direction has evolved quite a bit, as mentioned above. Most notably, the introduction of our “Skooba®” collection a few years ago really sent things into high gear. The combination of ultra-light weight without compromising protection, unique shapes and colors, and other features clearly hit the mark, and the Skooba collection has dominated our business ever since (sorry, I really did not mean for that to sound so much like a product plug). As I mentioned in my answer to your first question, we are changing the name of the business to reflect the success of Skooba, and our new website at www.skoobadesign.com will go live within a few weeks (right now it forwards to our current site, but all info on the current site is still up-to-date).

The other major development is that we are in our third year of a very exciting joint-venture with the 30-year old Tenba® camera bag brand. Tenba (ironically a former competitor from our earlier camera bag days) is largely credited with inventing the modern, soft-sided camera bag, and has been a hallmark of top-level professional photographers. We now do all of the product development, manufacturing (both offshore and domestically) and warehousing for Tenba, while our partners in the venture concentrate on sales and marketing to a base of several hundred photo stores in the US and distributors in about 35 countries. That business is growing dramatically.

How many different products does RoadWired currently sell?

Going by catalog number (which means counting all color, size, and fabric variations), we have about 100 different items, with a bunch more on the way in the second half of this year. And that does not include the Tenba brand, which adds about another 300 items.

How many employees do you have?

We have 10 direct/full-time employees at our Rochester, New York office, where we focus on product development (all done in-house), marketing and warehousing. Our joint-venture partners in the Tenba camera bag business have around 80 employees plus 25 or 30 salespeople “on the road”.

Any hints you want to give the readers on new products coming down
the pike?

Where do I start? Our product development schedule this year is “insane” (in a good way). We have set the bar higher for ourselves than ever before, as we are in an extraordinarily competitive category and our goal is to always be innovating and avoiding the “me-too” product trap. In the very near term (this summer), we’ll be rolling out some products that we are very excited about. One is the Skooba Skin “DIY,” a new version of our popular convertible laptop sleeve/tote. The “DIY” version is made of blank canvas, so that the owner can draw, paint, or otherwise decorate it him- or herself. The people who have seen them so far have gone nuts for the idea, and we’ll be having decorating contests and other events around the product.

Also coming soon, new laptop bags with the most amazing shoulder straps we think anyone has ever seen (in our humble opinion), a new backpack collection, and some very unique surprises. It is going to be a very exciting second half.

Where do you call home?

I grew up in New York City but moved in 1980 to Rochester (about 350 miles upstate). Rochester is best known as the home of Kodak, but a city with a tremendous high-tech innovation and small business/startup base (most people are surprised when they learn about some of the companies which started and/or are based here). The area also has some really great cultural, sports and other quality-of-life offerings. We have Lake Ontario, the Erie Canal, the Finger Lakes (spectacular recreational, nature and wine country), and even the highest vertical elevation ski mountain between The Adirondacks and the Rockies, all within 15 – 30 minutes from anywhere. I won’t try to compete with Scott Jordan from ScotteVest for best ski area, but ours ain’t bad, and it’s close. So we’re very happy here.

What mobile phone do you currently use?

Motorola RAZR. Although I love gadgets, I am so over-connected already (3 computers, etc.) that when it comes to phones, I just want, well, a phone. That’s it. Camera, web access and other popular phone/smartphone features are unimportant to me. I like the RAZR for its truly pocket-sized form factor, and I have always been loyal to Motorola because their phones are high quality and—compared to many—virtually indestructible. Drop ‘em, sit on ‘em, you name it, and they keep on working (and no, Motorola doesn’t pay me to say that, I’m not a shareholder, and I don’t have any family members who work there).

What PDA (if you use one) do you currently use?

See above… other than calendar and contacts, which are sync’d among my 2 desktops and my laptop, I go seriously low-tech when it comes to keeping daily notes and similar info. Yellow lined paper pads, sticky notes and a Moleskine notebook… if it is important, or I have an idea or a product sketch in my head, I write it down the old-fashioned way. It just works for me. I have actually read and heard of many “tech”-related executives and managers who share this somewhat ironic attachment to pen and paper. I might be sitting in a hotel room having a Skype video conference on my laptop, with XM playing in the background and my digital camera recharging on the desk, but you can bet there will be a pen and pad in my hand. When I get back from a trip to the Far East and unpack, it looks like there was an explosion in a Post-It factory. But as I said, paper just works for me… and the batteries last a really, really long time.

What is your primary computer?

Much like Motorola, I am very IBM/Lenovo loyal, as I think they make the best quality machines to this day, and their service is—at least relative to the state of the PC business—far better than most. They are not the most exciting machines to look at, but that’s not what I use them for. Our office is nearly all IBM, I have an IBM desktop system at home and at work, and a super-light IBM X-series laptop (I can’t stand trackpads, and to me, the “eraser-head” is still the best laptop pointing device ever). My wife, as well as many of my colleagues and friends, are Mac-heads, and I must admit that nobody touches Apple from a pure design and elegance standpoint—not too many people would argue that. But I am a PC guy (not the dorky one in the commercials, though).

What is your favorite gadget right now?

Tough question. I guess since you specifically said “right now,” I’d have to say the Suunto M3 wristwatch, since I just got it recently. It’s a multi-function watch/computer specifically designed for sailboat racing, which (aside from family) is my biggest outside-work obsession. I have yet to figure out all of the features of this watch, but I love knowing that they are in there somewhere. Suunto makes a huge range of amazing “wrist computers” for many sports and activities, and the price and value are really impressive. It’s 2:15 pm EST right now, by the way… is that a great watch, or what?

What is your all time favorite gadget?

Oooh, an even tougher question. Come on… could *you* answer that one, Julie? Seriously, though, I guess I’d have to say, if it counts as a gadget, it would be my aforementioned X-series laptop. Best I have ever owned, a pleasure to travel with, and I don’t know how I would survive without it on the road. A very close second choice–maybe even a tie—is probably XM radio, and third may or may not be Coleco electronic football (the one with the LED “players”), circa 1978. And I’d be remiss if I did not mention Airzooka, one of the most addictive toys ever, and a favorite around the office. Did you really think I could name just one gadget?

What car do you drive?

Lexus IS. I just traded in a BMW that I drove and loved for 8 years, since I am a “car guy” and was jonesing for something new. I am frankly disappointed with the design and value direction that BMW has taken in recent years, so I tried something different. I like the Lexus a lot, but I have to say that as a true “driver’s car,” in my opinion nothing compares to a BMW.

Which gear bag do you use and what is in it right now?

That’s a sort-of funny question, because even though I have a relatively tiny laptop, I am primarily using one of our larger bags, the “Skooba Seventeen+“. I bounce around from bag to bag, and have used all of our products (as you might expect), but I just love the design and capacity of the Skooba Seventeen. Right now in my bag I have my laptop, Canon Powershot digital camera, iGo multi-adapter system, Logitech mini-webcam (fantastic for Skype calls when overseas or otherwise far away from home), Plane Quiet noise-cancelling headphones, cards, adapters, cords, tons of papers, etc. When I travel, especially to trade shows or long trips overseas, I sometimes switch to a rolling case, like our Roadster Convertible.

Thanks Michael!

Thank you, Julie, for inviting me. We are all fans and it’s an honor to have been asked.

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Tagged: Article, Gadgeteer Spotlight

Gadgeteer Spotlight on Michael Hess of RoadWired.com originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 6, 2007 at 10:00 pm.

Gadgeteer Spotlight articles are short informal interviews with some of this industry’s most influential and interesting
people. Gain some insight and learn some interesting facts about the people behind some of our favorite gadgets, gizmos
and gear.

Today we sit down (virtually) with Scott Jordan of SCOTTeVEST.com…

Scott and wife Laura, along with their 3 poodles

When was SCOTTeVEST first started?

In December 2000.

How did you come up with the idea for it?

As a lawyer for a now defunct dot.com company, I was commuting from Chicago to New Jersey every week. I found myself juggling all my devices all too often, and my wife, Laura, suggested that I should design a better looking photographer’s vest to hold my gear. She was sick of me asking her to hold my stuff too. Now, she is handing me her stuff to put in my SeV.
This page on our website summarized the inspiration behind our company:
http://www.scottevest.com/v3_company/our_story.shtml

What was the first product that you put on the market?

Version 1.0, eVEST. The one you reviewed below.

My first review of one of your products was the eVest:
http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/review/scott_evest_review

Does that bring back any memories?

Oh yea! That was just after September 11th (9-11). Your review was awesome, and helped motivate me to continue with this business. After 9-11, like many others, our business came to a complete halt. As a result, we re-doubled our efforts, and started marketing our products to help you save time during the security process at airports.

Since that first version, we now have a
full line of
products, not just Vests. We sure have come a long way!

Where do you call home?

Ketchum, Idaho, also known as
Sun Valley, Idaho. It is home to a world class ski and mountain resort. It is truly awesome. It is so beautiful, that often it is hard to work. However, I can often times work while riding the ski lift, or hiking.

What mobile phone do you currently use?

After trying most PDA’s and phones, I am now using a old fashioned Blackberry hockey puck style. I have been frustrated with the other products out there that try to do everything, but do nothing well. Although my Blackberry is bulky, and doesn’t have a camera, the phone works fine, and the email rocks. I am waiting for Verizon to bring out the Blackberry 8800 with GPS.

What PDA (if you use one) do you currently use?

I use my Blackberry for my PDA and Phone.

What is your primary computer?

I used to use a Toshiba Tablet, but found that it was too slow, so now I have a Desktop Dell Dimension E521 with memory upgrades and 2 big LCD screens. I miss my Snippet features from my Tablet, but all things considered, the speed is much better.

What is your favorite gadget right now?

I have a real nice
Canon PowerShot
SD900.
It takes 10 Megapixel pics and is really small and fast.

What is your all time favorite gadget?

Tough to say; if the commercials are accurate, I crave an
iPhone, but I am going to wait until they work out the kinks.

What car do you drive?

I have 3 cars, 2 cars too many.

1. Our daily driver is a Jeep Unlimited 4 door. We just got this and we love it. You can remove the top, in sections, and it is fun off road.

2. Porsche 911 C2 Cabriolet: It is a 1990, and we bought it used. It only has 45K miles on it, and I love this car, especially in the summer here. I got it instead of having a kid. In sum, after 2 years of being married, I turned to my wife, Laura, and kept bugging her about having kids. One day she flippantly said, “what’s it going to take for you to stop bugging me about having kids?”, and I replied quickly: “Porsche 911 Cab White”. So the next day, we went shopping, and I haven’t bugged her about kids since. We now have 3 standard poodles instead, which look very funny crammed into the Porsche.

3. MINI Cooper S -2002. I love this car, but I don’t drive it much. I used to race it against BMW’s and Porsche’s and win! It has only 14K miles on it, and I don’t drive it much any more. I think I am going to sell it soon.

If you carry a gear bag, which one do you use and what is in it right now?

I don’t typically carry a gear bag, since most of my gear is in my SeV, but if I did it would be a
Roadwired.com product. They make the best bags on the market.

Thanks for taking time to answer my question Scott! Keep up the good work at SCOTTeVEST as I look forward to learning about and
reviewing your future products.

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Tagged: Article, Gadgeteer Spotlight

Gadgeteer Spotlight on Scott Jordan of SCOTTeVEST.com originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 22, 2007 at 1:18 pm.

Name: Livy Lee
Location: Singapore

Hi, I am Livy from Singapore. I am a female gadget lover and none of my female friends share the same interests with me.

I started buying electronic stuffs in year 2003 November, I got myself a brand new Tungsten T3 and at that time it was the latest model by PalmOne. Since then, I entered the fantastic world of Palm. I started to shop for other accessories for my Tungsten T3, such as a wireless keyboard, a Palm PowerToGo, a Krusell leathercase, etc. But these were not enough, after a month, I rushed out to buy another hot Pocket PC of that year, an iPaq h2210 (aka h2215) to experience a different operating system.

Later, out of curiosity, I bought myself some OS4 Palm devices to play with the DA utilities and Hacks, as we all know, these little DAs were more usable in Palm OS4 than OS5 devices. When I saw some good offerings, I would BUY (and regret later). This is a list of PDAs that I had owned previously:

- Two Tungsten T3
- iPaq h2210
- Sony CLIE SJ30
- Sony CLIE TJ37
- Sony CLIE TG50
- Handspring Treo90
- Tapwave Zodiac 2 (128MB)
- Two Tungsten C
- Tungsten T2
- Sony CLIE SJ33
- Palm m500
- Handspring Treo180

- HandEra 330
- Zire 71
- Acer s10 (Palm OS4)
- Asus MyPal A716
- PalmOne Treo600
- Acer n30 (PPC)
- Two Treo650
- Dell X50v

Currently, I have only Treo 650 (my everyday device), Tungsten C, Acer n30 PPC and Acer s10 monochrome palm. I felt so guilty to own many PDAs so I sold off the rest. For my Treo 650, I am using Seidio Silicone case, Seidio 2400mAh battery, Seidio 2-in-1 headset and a Brando workshop sync-charge cable.

Besides my love for PDAs (mainly Palm), I like Apple computer. I am using a 20-inch iMac (2.16GHz, Intel Core 2 Duo) as my primary desktop computer. With this, I have a 300 gb 3.5″ portable hard disk to store music albums and hook it up to a Squeezebox 3. I also own 12-inch iBook (1.3GHz) with 80gb hard disk installed, a 14-inch Toshiba Satellite 2400 laptop that I used mainly in school, together with a 30gb portable hard disk (an original hard disk extracted from my iBook) full of music mainly encoded in FLAC and ALAC.

Another gadget that I am obsessed with is headphone. I use my headphones to listen music everyday and it is always by my side with few full-sized headphones at home and some in-ear-monitors on the go. I started off this hobby not long ago in July 2005, with a Little Dot II budget tube amplifier, a Sennheiser HD650 and a budget NAD C521BEE CD Player. Since then, I am hooked and changed my interest from PDA over to headphones. The upgraditis bugs bite me very hard:

Headphones I had owned and gone are:
- Grado GS1000 (Statement series)
- Sennheiser HD650
- Beyerdynamic DT880 (pre-2006)
- DT990 (current flagship) Grado SR-60
- Alessandro MS2i
- Audio Technica ATH-CM5
- ATH-FC7
- Shure E4C
- Etymotics ER6i

The headphone amplifiers that I had owned and gone:
- Little Dot II
- Aperhead 47 (A47)
- Original Master
- HeadRoom Total Bithead (2005)
- Emmeline SR-71
- Minified PINT
- Xiangsheng 708B
- EarMax Pro

The sources I had owned and gone:
- NAD C521 BEE
- 3rd gen 15gb iPod
- 1st gen 1gb iPod shuffle
- Panasonic SX-280
- Cyrus CD7

So what are my current possession in this head-fi hobby? Below is the list:

Headphone inventory:
- Grado PS-1 (professional series)
- Grado RS-1 (Reference series)
- Alessandro MS-Pro (Music series Pro)
- Audio Technica ATH-W5000 “Raffinato” (made from high quality Japanese Ebony wood, Shimma-kokutan)
- Sennheiser HD600 (stock cable)
- AKG K501
- Koss KSC-75
- Sennheiser MX500
- Etymotics ER-4S
- Shure E5C
- Westone ES2 (custom in-ear-monitor)

Headphone amplifier
- PS Audio GCHA
- Corda HA-2 MKII
- PA2V2

Sources inventory
- CEC TL51XR CDP (as my transport)
- Bel Canto DAC3 (DAC/Preamp)
- Slim devices Squeezebox 3 (network music player)
- Consonance 1.1 CDP (seldom use)
- 4th gen 20gb iPod
- Panasonic SL-CT720 Portable CDP

Tweaks, Interconnects, and Power-related
- DH Jumbo cones
- Solid Tech Feet of Silence
- Blacksand violet Z1 power cords
- PS Audio Duet Power Center
- Kimber Silver Streaks
- Zu Oxyfuel

I also own a multimedia Aego M speakers for evening music listening, sometime I just want to sit back and relax. Now currently eyeing on the Bel canto M300 mono blocks and the AVI Duo loudspeakers. Sorry about my wallet

Besides these PDAs, apple computers and headphones, I also love my Sony PSP (black). This is my everyday gadget on the go.

A friend of mine had made this comment on me: “You are the only person I know who has changes gadgets so regularly, be it guy or gal…”, so, got some idea now? =)

At last, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the people involved in The Gadgeteer, for keeping up the good work. This is the Best Gadget website I have seen with good reviews and news. I enjoy reading them, thank you!

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Read About Featured Gadgeteer – Livy Lee originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 21, 2007 at 7:11 pm.

Name: Nelson Pereira
Location: Portugal

Hi! My name is Nelson Pereira and I’m 27. I live in Portugal near Porto(Port wine anyone?). I’m a swim teacher and a Network engineering student. In my (very rare) free time I like to do some photography. You can see some older pictures here: http://community.webshots.com/user/glitchmaker. Now let’s speak of gadgets. To me gadgets are like toys, and boy, how I like to play. Every time I see a new gadget I have two questions in mind. 1) Can I afford it and 2) What excuse do I need to give myself to buy it. With that said my list of gadgets is long (but not much):

Lets start with computers:
Compaq presario CDTV 528 running SuSE Linux (donated to me)
Toshiba Satellite 1710 CDT (6 year and still kiking, my first laptop)
Dell OptiPlex GX240 with LG Flatron 1510 touch screen (serving as MythTV media center)
Apple PowerBook 12” G4 1.5 Ghz
Generic AMD 2400+ with a Samsung 959 NF 19” CTR (this where I type)

PDA’s:
HP Jornada 720
Palm Tungsten T
Apple Newton MessagePad
Matsucom OnHandPC
Xircom RexPro (to use with the Jornada)

Media Players:
Welltech mp3 alarm Clock
Apple Ipod 20Gb 3rd Gen (the gorgeous)
Nano ripoff 512mb
SMC Wireless audio Adapter

Portable game Consoles:
Nintendo Gameboy pocket
Nintendo Gameboy Advance
Sony Playstation Portable

Random gadgets:
Belkin Anywhere Power Inverter
Magellan GPS 320
Polar S625X training Computer
Tivoli Audio Model one (the best radio (my) money can buy)
Bluespoon AX Bluetooth headset (earset)
SonyEricsson V800 Mobile Phone
MacFer 5 Led Lamp (everybody loves LEDs)
ColdHeat Soldering Iron
Wifi Detector
Minolta Dimage Z1

Hope you enjoy my little list of gadgets. I still don’t have a laser pointer because I want a green or blue one…:P But gadgets means nothing if do not do anything more with the other. Always try to think you can do for other and no the opposite. So I send the best regards to everybody from sunny Portugal and as we say here: Até Breve! (see you soon).

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Read About Featured Gadgeteer – Nelson Pereira originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 17, 2007 at 2:09 pm.

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Tuesday

My 750v is really getting on my nerves. If you remember (and read yesterday’s report…), I’ve been having a few issues with it this trip. Well this morning the alarm I had set to wake me at 7am didn’t go off. [ I thought Microsoft fixed the problem with alarms not firing. If I can’t count on a smartphone to help me keep the appointments that I set, then I really don’t want to be using that particular smartphone. So, I think I’ll be looking elsewhere soon. iPhone maybe? ;o) I need something sooner than 6 months out though.

After I woke up (1hr late!), I was soon out the door and on a shuttle bus back to the convention center. My first stop was back at the Central hall to finish what I had missed the day before.

I wonder if this gaming chair from Pyramat is any better than the HoMedics iCush I recently reviewed?

The advantage of this product is that you don’t have to set it inside another chair to use it.

The Universal Electronics booth had all kinds of remotes on display. I really need to check out one of their high end remotes for my own home theater components at home.

Next up, I had to run back over to the South Hall where I had a meeting with Dynamism. Douglas brought along 2 bags filled with toys to show me.

The first item he handed me was the new Flybook VM. The main feature of this slim Core Duo laptop is the unique display.

It is easily adjustable to almost any viewing angle. The only thing it doesn’t do is fold down completely flat to turn into a tablet.

Next up was the Kohjinsha SA1F00 ultra portable.

As you can see, it does have a display that can rotate and fold down flat. It doesn’t have a touch screen though…

Here’s the Vega UMPC. The display and size were equally nice.

Doug also had the Sony UX90. This is different from the UX50 that they sent me last summer to review. This one has a 32GB Solid State hard drive. I was impressed by the system speed launching applications.

The next item that Doug pulled out of his magic bag of gadgets was the Panasonic HDC-SD1. This little guy has 3 CCDs, a Leica lens and saves to SD cards. At $1600.00 it is pretty expensive, but it does come with a 4gb SDHC card )

The Panasonic Wordsgear was an interesting eBook reader. About the size of a paperback book, it has a good display (5.6″ SVGA high resolution (1024×600 211ppi) display and can play movies and music and photos.

I especially liked the page turning mechanism located along the left edge. It was a rubbery pad that you just flick your finger up and down to turn the page of the ebook that you happen to be reading.

Last but not least, he showed me some cutesy solar powered desk toys. The little FlipFlap plant is similar to the Potan Poton that I reviewed from Brando, but this one doesn’t require any water to power it though.

After my meeting with Doug of Dynamism, I trekked over to the North Hall to check out all the fancy cars and car audio gadgets. I’m not really into this particular genre of products, but I you guys would enjoy some pretty car pics, so here you go!

Now that’s a pretty truck!

Hmmm, why do I need an LCD in the car door?

Another shiny car.

And another…

And yet another…

Blue is always nice.

This one wasn’t shiny. The paint job reminded me of a coat of primer. Very Batman-ish.

Retro techno.

LCD displays gone mad!

Ok, that’s enough cars. After a while in this hall, you felt like your brain was going to shake out of your head due to the bass rumbling in all the car speakers!

Weenies getting a free foot and back massages. I’m walking around on a bum ankle, you don’t see me getting any special treatment! ;o)

As I was trying to find my way back out of the hall, I spotted Honda’s large Azimo stage. I had never seen the Azimo robot in the flesh before, so I stuck around for the next show to start.

Pretty soon, the area around the stage was packed with people.

Then Azimo walked out and greeted the audience. Look, he (she?) is waving at me!

There was also a host on stage with the robot, that interacted with Azimo to give the demo. The weirdest thing was hearing Azimo speak. It has a almost creepy (to me at least) female voice. Azimo doesn’t look like a girl to me. Does it to you?

See Asimo in action…

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VLC is another free viewer.

After the Azimo demo, I grabbed a cheeseburger, chips and a diet Pepsi. Then I wandered around for a few minutes before calling it a day. Goodbye CES showroom floors! I will probably see you again next year.

I grabbed a bunch of freebie magazines on the way out.

I took a taxi back to my hotel room and immediately started surfing for Mac World news from Steve Job’s keynote speech earlier in the day. I was pretty floored when I saw the picture of the iPhone. I almost brought tears to my eyes, it is that pretty. I wish we didn’t have to wait 6 months before getting some hands-on time though.

A couple hours later I headed over to the MGM for a dinner meeting with Palm. The dinner was held at a great Mexican restaurant called Diegos. I sat next to the engineer who was over the 750v and 750, so I was able to tell him my current gripes about my own 750v. He was surprised about the network time not updating. I was ‘happy’ when Dieter Bohn of TreoCentral.com who was sitting next to me, told me that he had the same problem when he arrived here. Yay, it’s not just me!

The dinner was primarily a meet and greet kind of affair. I was surprised that they didn’t ask us for comments or opinions on their products. I did come away with one useful tidbit though. I learned a nifty little trick so that you can turn it off while in an app, so that when you turn it back on, it will power up in that app. As is, if you press the red end call/power button, it will go to the Today screen and then you have to press it again to turn off the phone. So everytime you turn the phone on, it’s at the Today screen. The trick is to press the Option button and then the power button. That will turn off and lock the device into that app. Great tip!

Around 10pm I left MGM and headed back to my hotel where I worked on this article and then turned in for the night. My time here in Las Vegas is almost over. I fly home tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon. It was a good time this year! I saw some interesting products, met some interesting people and caught up with some old friends. Hope everyone enjoyed the report!

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Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2007 Trip Report (Day 3) originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 10, 2007 at 8:00 am.

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Monday

Before we get into the report for the day, I wanted to answer a question about the gear I brought with me on the trip. I am a light packer. Probably too light. I almost always find myself wishing I had remembered to bring along X or Y.

For this trip I bought:

My brand new 15″ MacBook Pro with glossy screen
ThinkOutside Bluetooth mouse
Treo 750v
Seidio retractable charge / sync cable for the Treo
Brand new Fujifilm Finepix F30 digital camera
Brando 55 in 1 card reader
2nd gen iPod Shuffle

Yup, that’s it and that’s all. Oh wait, I forgot to mention that I am carrying all my electronic stuff in a freebie gear bag that I guess was sent to me because I’m on the press list for CES. A couple weeks before the event it showed up in the mail with a card that says enjoy CES. It has AMD silkscreened on the front, but it’s actually a Vertical 2.0 bag from Oakley. It’s a really nice gear bag and has replaced my old faithful Sundog vertical bag that I’ve been toting around when I travel. The best part is that my new Macbook Pro fits in it perfectly! )

I want to digress for just a few more sentences… I was reminded yesterday why I can never fully love Windows Mobile. My plane lands. I turn the phone back on in my Treo 750v. I notice it does not set the current time. I double check that I have the option for it to set the time with regards to the current network. I press the reset button. No luck. I have to go in and manually set the time. When I do this, it warns me that my appointments will change to match the new time zone. Fine, that’s what I want them to do. But guess what? the appointment times DON’T change. So now all my CES mtg times are all screwed up and I have to go in and fix them by hand. Can you say ARGH!?

And now back to the show… With a quick shower, and an equally quick gobble of a trailmix nutbar (because when I called for room service, they told me breakfast was backed up for 90mins – ack), I was out the door and down to the lobby to wait on the free shuttle service to the convention center. The wait was only a few minutes, so within no time at all I was dropped off at the South Hall. My first destination was to the Press Room to get my badge holder and free press gear bag.

This year it is an Orange backpack. The cool thing about it is that the front part unzips to create a smaller horizontal shoulder bag. Nifty.

I then proceeded into the sea of people heading for the South Hall. Like all of the halls in this convention center, they are massive in size. When you first walk through the doorway, you know you’ll never see everything there is to see there. It’s even hard to decide which way to tackle it. Start from the Right? Left? Straight down the middle? I don’t even remember how I decided to start browsing, but the first product I saw was a unique one!

A motorized inflatable pool lounger from Excalibur Electronics.

You know you want one! ;o)

Next booth that caught my eye (now I kinda wish it hadn’t…) was for Eton.

They had a whole line of retro (at least they look retro to me) looking radios with built in hand cranks. Here you see the FR300, which is an AM/FM/TV and NOAA weather radio. It also has an LED flashlight on the front and can charge your cellphone. You never need to worry that you have charged batteries because the hand crank will provide power. The folks at the booth even gave me one to take with me.

And then it happened… I turned around to start browsing again and stepped off their booth platform that was raised by about 3 inches off the floor and turned my ankle. Can you say OUCHY? ( But in true Julie style, I just kept right on walking with nary a whimper… although it did hurt like a $#%@. What a way to start the day!

As long as I kept walking, my ankle was tender, but sturdy. So I kept going…

How would you like this person’s job? I’m not quite sure what the heck it is supposed to be, but I just had to get a picture anyway ;o)

The show room floors were littered with companies displaying Bluetooth headsets in all manner of sizes and styles. The one you see below looked much sexier in person.

This headset is from an Australian company called BlueAnt. It’s the Z9 and it’s is the winner of this year’s CES 2007 Innovations Design and Engineering Award. It has 2 microphones and 2 ring tones to differentiate between known and unknown callers. It’s not available yet, but will be in March.

The product you see in the image above caught my attention next. Wouldn’t it have yours? I had no idea what it was. Maybe a automatic bucking bull for kids? The booth was pretty much void of pamphlets and booth droids, so I took at look at one of their other products to find a website address or company name, which I think is Strong Idea. The website by that same name doesn’t appear to be the same company… So if anyone can tell me what this product is, I’d be happy to hear about it. )

Next up were some tabletop HD radios. I’ve been interested in learning more about HD radio. I’m not sure there are many stations in my area that I could pick up though.

These particular radios were from Cambridge Soundworks.

Moving right along, I ran into the massive Creative booth area. They had stations setup with their popular ZEN audio players, and they were also showing off this new larger format media player that you see below:

This is the ZEN Vision W. Pretty. Pretty big. How many of you out there have a media player this size that you use all the time? Personally, it’s a bit too large for me to want to carry around. Very nice display though. Hey Mark, they are playing your fave show! )

Check this out… In a Creative display case, there is an iPod! Creative is actually creating iPod accessories. It’s part of their X-Fi solutions. They way I understand it, X-Fi puts part of the sine wave back into compressed music to make it sound better. The dock you see above plays the music from your iPod, but makes it sound a whole lot better.

Now it’s time for a couple pretty showroom floor pix!

People, people everywhere!

Mmmmm Purple! Let’s go see what Nokia has to show off, shall we?

It’s their new wireless tablet, the N800. It looks a whole lot nicer than the 770, that’s for sure. I wish it was also a quad band phone though. At least it can use Bluetooth phone as a modem.

This little tri-band slider music phone (5200) was pretty fun to play with. Until I can have 80gb built into my phone, I probably will never use my phone to play music. I’d also be afraid that I’d run the batteries down listening to tunes all day and not have enough juice left to make necessary calls.

Anyone out there into treasure hunting? Ok, time for a Julie moment… My new fave TV show is Cash and Treasures on the Travel channel. If you haven’t seen it, check it out. I have a metal detector, but it’s got to be at least 20yrs old… The Garrett booth was showing a new model that is very inexpensive, but has features that some higher models have.

The Ace 150 sells for $179.95. I have an itch to buy one of these, book a trip to Florida and spend a week combing beaches )

The next booth I stopped at was Otterbox’s booth. We’ve reviewed some of their products before (stay tuned later this week for Meredyth’s review of their new Treo case…). Their latest case to be available soon is for the Blackberry.

This case is built like a tank!

Speaking of a tank, look at this thing! It’s the VersaLaser. You may have seen their ads in PC Magazine before.

This is a big ‘printer’ that prints and cuts with a laser. And it can print on just about anything.

The blocks above are wooden with carved out printed letters. The black and white image next to them on the right is a marble tile that has had a picture carved into its surface. Very cool! Too bad it’s very expensive. But if you have almost 10k, you too can print on anything!

Like mobile phone accessories, ipod accessories and large TVs, there were lots of flash drives floating around. I couldn’t help but smile at these Disney branded drives. Too bad they weren’t giving them away. I would have scored major points with my boss at my day job as she’s a big Mickey fan. )

Speaking of large TVs and other types of displays, they were absolutely everywhere when I moved from the South Hall to the Central Hall. The Kodak booth had their whole back wall mounted with digital photo frames.

You know, I never have decorated my remodeled home office. Maybe I should use digital frames…

Or LCD TVs!

Or better yet, the world’s largest LCD TV. At 108″, this TV from Sharp was beyond yummy!

You know what else is yummy? Free lunches! As a member of the press, we receive coupons for a free lunch every day of the show. So at 11:30, I took my hungry little bod over to the press area to stand in line for the free grub. In previous years, we were fed a nice hot lunch. This year it was a cold boxed lunch. The one I picked up had a turkey and cheese sub, an apple, some kind of crumbly dessert bar and potato salad. It wasn’t anything to rave about, but it was free and it gave me the chance to sit down and recharge for a bit. I also had a nice conversation with a guy about Tivo and Netflix. You know I’ve never tried Netflix, but I think I just might sign up soon. Is it just me, or have the premium movie channels on DirecTV been really lame lately?

After lunch, I continued my tour of the Central Hall. I made a stop at the Sanyo booth to check out their handheld camcorders.

Their new little VPC-CA6 Xacti is weather proof and can support 4GB SDHC memory cards.

It’s even more compact that then Xacti VPC-HD1 that I reviewed earlier this year.

Speaking of which, here’s their new model of the HD1. The HD2. I need to find out if the HD2 is any better with regards to shooting in low light (indoors). If it is, I’m definitely upgrading to it. I love my little HD1.

At this point my ankle was starting to bother me, so I decided to get a taxi back to the hotel, work on this article and rest up before party #2: ShowStoppers.

After I got back to my hotel room, I kicked off my shoes, and started sorting through all the things I had stuffed into the freebie press backpack.

Here’s the loot from my travels through the North and Central Halls (I’m not completely done with the Central Hall). I’m being pretty picky with which booths I’m stopping at this year, so my accumulation of loot will probably end up being less than previous years.

After a couple hours working on this article, chatting, emailing and making phone calls, I decided to order in some food. Mmmmmm, scrambled eggs, hashbrowns and wheat toast. My missing breakfast from this morning ;o) Hey what’s up with the fact that you can’t seem to find a Diet Coke in this town? It’s all Pepsi, all the time. Phooey.

A quick look at the time told me that I better make way over to the Wynn for ShowStoppers.

Love their lobby….

After a long hike to the back of the building where the ballrooms were located, I finally found the party and quickly grabbed my name badge and headed to the entrance.

As soon as I walked though the door, a guy grabbed me, asked if I had my phone with me and when I said yes, he grabbed it and put a furry Koala bear Fun Friends case on it (see last picture in this article). Hahaha, does anyone really use these types of cases with their phones? Come on, fess up? Someone has to be buying these things, but I wanna know who?

Want to learn to play piano? I was given a demo of Piano Wizard; a software / hardware package that uses color and a video game concept to help teach kids how to play the piano without learning musical notation first. The software works with a Mac too!

Remember WowWee, the company that bought you RoboSapien?

Their latest product is an Elvis head. No, I’m not kidding. I’m not sure who would actually want an animated, singing Elvis head, but if you’re such a person, you must be really happy right now! ;o)

There seemed to be more software / service type displays at ShowStoppers. I walked by most of them because we don’t really focus on that sort of thing at The Gadgeteer…

That said, I did stop at Boonty’s booth which was demoing a new FREE social gaming site at Cafe.com. The games looked liked they might be fun, and hey, they are free!

The folks from HobbyTron were there with the PicooZ and some other R/C controlled gadgets.

Oh boy, look at their new helicopter. Yes, it’s much bigger than the PicooZ, but still very cool.

This particular model can go up/down, forward/backwards, and left/right. I asked them to give me a demo and they happily complied.

Up, up and away! This looks like a fun toy. They said they would send me a sample to review after the show.

Get a load of this product. At first I thought it was some sort of exercise device. But how many geeks exercise? ;o) It’s for video games. It’s called the Dream Machine Simcon and apparently it gives you a whole new sense of realism while you play games. Two problems though… 1. Where do you put it when you’re not playing games? 2. The price: $1399. Ouchy!

And now let’s go from games to music…

The next booth was demoing the LightSnake. This is a USB -> Guitar cable that makes it super easy to record your music to a PC/Mac. With the cable, you don’t need a pre-amp.

They were also showing a new Podcasting kit as well.

If you have problems with blind spots in your vehicle, or want to see what’s going on in the backseat or behind your car, then these products from Magna were pretty interesting.

I especially liked the slide out video mirrors like the one on the top right.

Oh look, here’s an actual exercise device for geeks…

It’s the uSurf from Brookstone. It’s a motorized ‘surf’ board that you can use to do all kinds of exercises. When you plug it in, it will start to move in different directions, so you have to tighten your core muscles to keep your balance.

That’s a rundown of the more interesting products that I saw today at both the main CES show and ShowStoppers.

I came back to my room with a nice collection of swag. I love the little Tivo guy. )

Tomorrow is my last day here in Vegas, so check back to read my final installment!

Read Part 1 and Part 3

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Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2007 Trip Report (Day 2) originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 9, 2007 at 8:00 am.

Read Part 2 and Part 3

No sooner has the wrapping paper from Santa’s presents to all good little gadgeteer boys and girls been shredded, that a new slew of goodies is unveiled for them to drool over. That’s right, it’s time for the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada. I made the trip out to the mecca of all things gadgety and will be bringing you all the yummy details as the show unfolds.

Sunday

The alarm clock woke me up at 5:30am EST and after a shower and finalization of my packing, I was in the car and on the way to the airport. One hour later, boarding pass in hand, egg McMuffin and Diet Coke in my belly, I settled in to wait for my flight to board.

The flight from Indy to Vegas wasn’t too bad except that I was in the very last row of the plane and was stuck between two very large guys. I felt like a Julie sandwich. If that wasn’t bad enough, one of the guys was a sneezer and the other one was a snorer. Despite those hardships, I survived and arrived on time in Las Vegas. After I retrieved my bags, I was herded like a Holstein into the Taxi waiting corral. Luckily it only took about 15mins to run through the loops and after a quickish cab ride, I arrived safe and sound at my hotel.

I’m staying at Bally’s this year. I’ve never stayed at this hotel, and so far it seems nice enough. Check out my room…

Nice and spacious.

With an extra table…

And back in the corner, there is a computer desk with a retractable Ethernet cable. Too bad they charge you for internet service. $11.99 / 24hrs.

Even the bathroom is nice )

At this point I was starving, so decided to explore the casino floor and get some food. I had a couple of hours to kill before CES Party #1: Digital Experience anyway. In true Vegas tradition, I opted for an all-you-can-eat buffet: The Big Kitchen. It was actually quite good. Not huge like some of the buffets at other big hotels that I’ve had in previous years, but good food. The Macaroni and Cheese brought back childhood memories of the way my Grandma used to make it. Good stuff!

On the way back from eating, I decided to sit down at one of the slot machines and try my luck. I’ll admit that I’m *not* a gambler. Typically $25 is my limit when I visit Vegas. Yeah, pretty lame huh? This time I was even more frugal… I stuck in a $5 and started pressing the buttons. Immediately I was up $7. Wow! Then I was down to $2. Then back up to $9 and back down to $3. Once I got back up to $10, I cashed out. I was quite surprised to see a ticket come of the machine instead of tokens. No more tokens? How sad…

It was about time for the Digital Experience party to start, so I headed outside to walk over to Caesar’s Palace. The cool thing about Vegas is that there are special overhead foot bridges and motorized sidewalks that span over the busy roads to connect the hotels.

A few minutes later I walked into Caesar’s Palace. It still amazes me how over the top the hotels are in this town. Check out the huge fountain that greets you as soon as you walk in the door.

I made my way through the casino and towards the pool area. On the way, I don’t know what came over me, but I sat down at another slot machine and fed in another $5. I didn’t like this game at all, it wasn’t a simple slot machine and I after a few minute, I wanted to just lose my 5 bucks and get myself to the gadget show. But just when I thought I had lost everything, I pushed the button and won back all my money again… plus 25 cents. Wheeeee ;o) Hey, I’m up $5.25 total so far. Can you tell that it doesn’t take much to make me happy? ;o)

Ok, time for business… Some more walking bought me to the party.

It’s a pirate theme… arrrrrrrrrrr

I got my badge, picked up a nice canvas tote bag to hold all the press releases and swag that I would be picking up, and headed towards the exhibitors area. Darn it! Wouldn’t you know they were serving free food here. Oh well. Here’s some info on the products that looked new and interesting…

The first booth that caught my eye was DLO’s (Digital Lifestyle Outfitters). They were showing a new iPod speaker systems called the iBoom. It’s a travel system with a built in clock that comes in White and Black. I really liked the Blue backlight. I’ve been promised a sample after the show, so I’ll have a review in the near future.

My eyes also zeroed in on the PowerBug which is a small AC charging adapter for the 2nd gen iPod Shuffle. They actually gave me one of these to take with me, so review soon!

I then turned around and almost thought I saw Johnny Depp. False alarm, just a look-alike in a pirate suit. He was a good sport and let me take his picture.

Next up was a product from Fujitsu called the ScanSnap. It’s basically a color scanner that can scan 18 page per minute. Who cares you might be thinking… Well what makes this scanner cool is the fact that it scans in duplex. In other words, it scans both sides of the page. No flipping required. Nice huh? I thought so too.

Then I came to the Interlink Electronics booth. They were displaying the Onyx Remote.

The Onyx is a wireless (2.4GHz) presentation remote that has a built in laser pointer and clock. But the best thing about this product in my opinion is the shape of the leather covered module which allows it to fit naturally and comfortably in your hand.

The folks from ifrogz where there with their highly customizable iPod cases. Since the last time I took a look at their products, they have some out with even more. They even have new iPod shuffle holder wrist bands. Fun stuff.

I almost walked by the next booth without stopping. At first glance, they were displaying several digital photo frames. I’ve reviewed several such products over the years, and while nice, they haven’t been the type of product to make my heart beat faster. I stopped for a closer look at one of their larger frames. I almost thought it it wasn’t a digital frame at all, but that it was just for display and had a printed static image on it. Then the image changed and I was really blown away.

The company is Pandigital and their 10″ digital frame is fantastic. I’ve never seen such a bright, smooth, picture from a digital frame. It also has a 6 in 1 card reader built in and according to the president of the company, scheduling and other time related features. All I can say is that I really want one of these frames. The 10″ is supposed to be approximately $250 when it becomes available the middle of February.

Another booth, another iPod accessory! This time it’s iLuv with their new line up of speakers incorporating what they are calling BluePin technology.

BluePin allows you to wirelessly share personal music content from any MP3 player, laptop or mobile phone that is equipped with Bluetooth.

I joked with the guys manning the booth telling them that iLuv hasn’t shown The Gadgeteer any love because they never respond to my emails requesting to review their products. We’ll see if they do now )

I know you’re going to think that all I am interested in is iPod related products… because here are some more. This time from Altec Lansing.

Hey look, they even make speakers for the Zune! But the system on the right caught my eye first. It’s the M812, which is a wireless speaker system.

The inMotion iMV712 looked equally yummy with it’s 8.5 inch color display for watching iPod video content.

I’m saving the best for last… OQO was there with their next gen ultra mobile PC. Remember when I reviewed their first model? Well this one has an answer to all my complaints.

The Model 02 looks super sexy with its shiny black case. It reminds me of the Sony PSP in a way. Besides outward appearances, it’s now powered by a 1.5GHz processor, has built in EVDO with Sprint, a better keyboard, better track stick and the screen is spongy any more. Yay! Now if only it ran Mac OS X! ;o) Just kidding… (not really)…

The Digital Experience show was a good time. It wasn’t huge compared to what I’m going to see on the regular show floors the next 2 days, but it was a nice lead in. My 2 fave products of the night were the digital frames from Pandigital and the OQO.

Here’s a shot of the booty I came back with… Nothing super exciting, but a nice haul for 1hr of walking around. And now I’m off to bed as it’s 2:19am my time. More tomorrow!

Read Part 2 and Part 3

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Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2007 Trip Report (Day 1) originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 8, 2007 at 8:00 am.

Name: Richard Raborn MD
Location: Boynton Beach, Florida

I am a 55 year old Internist in Boynton Beach Florida, a volunteer Medical Director at Caridad Center, and am in private practice with MDVIP, and am Chief of Staff at Bethesda Memorial Hospital

I have had a longtime interest in computers in medicine. My first business computer was by Bas-Med which was put out of business by Medic+. After all that hassle, I thought there must be better and easier ways to get information about patients to doctors and insurance companies. I wanted to use a device that made sense. I am a Star Trek fan. Handheld devices make sense! I have always been an early adopter of technology. I started using an early Palm to send prescrptions directly to phamacies that were legible thru Ephysician (now out of business). I have used phones such as the Samsung Que which was also Palm based. Later I purchased a Clio running Win CE and with wireless technology to use in the office. Now I have a Treo 700p and a Fujitsu tablet PC to run mdtablet software.

I lead the medical staff efforts to improve PDA use in the hospital, to improve patient safety, improve physician / nurse communication and save everyone time. The Seimens PDA access works fine with a Treo 700w. We gave out 10 Palm T/X devices as attendance rewards for meetings which came loaded with all the local info to work well in the Bethesda Hospital System. Now we are teaching medical students from the University of Miami and Nova Southeastern University. PDA club meetings have been held. These activities have restored some of the joy in medicine for me. I own an IQue GPS that I have barely used. JAMA Tyler Chin interviewed me for two articles. One on PDA use and another on Holter monitors and computers.

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Read About Featured Gadgeteer – Richard Raborn MD originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 16, 2006 at 6:36 pm.

This year, Microsoft changed things up and decided to hold two Mobius events back to back. The first one was held in Thailand, and the second one here in the US. Typically, the events here in the US have always been held in Seattle, WA., near Microsoft’s Redmond headquarters. But this year they opted for Boston, MA. Lucky for me, I was invited to the Boston event. This meant a short 2hr flight, instead of 4-5 hours to Seattle.

My travel day was less stressful than usual because I was able to talk my Dad into driving me to the airport, so that I wouldn’t have to leave my car parked in long term parking for several days. I had to bribe him with gadgets though… I let him borrow my iPod nano and I gave him an early birthday present of a Huntlight Flashlight. So with gadgets in hand, he picked me up at the house and then dropped me off at the airport.

The flight from Indianapolis to Boston was super fast. Unlike poor Judie who had attended the Thailand event. Before I knew it, I was being ushered into a town car and was on my way to the very nice Hotel Marlowe in Cambridge.

The large comfortable room was a kaleidoscope of patterns and textures.

Like any good Gadgeteer, the first thing I did was unpack my Powerbook and connect to the free WiFi to pull down all my mail and check the site. Check it out, the hotel uses cable turtles ) I don’t know why this struck me as cool, but it did!

After a quick email fix, I called Tong Zhang of MobileTechReview.com. We had made prior plans to hook up before the evening’s meet and greet festivities. I hadn’t seen Tong in over a year, so I was looking forward to catching up with her. I went down to her room and we chatted for a couple hours. She had actually brought the Cingular 3125 (Star Trek) for me to play with for a couple of days. I was impressed with the size, feel and screen.

When it was time for the meet and greet, I ran back up to my room to get the DualCor cPC and then Tong and I went down to the hotel lounge and started meeting the other invitees. The best part of Mobius is meeting the people that run the websites that you visit every day (or multiple times a day if you’re surf obsessed like I am!). There were lots of familiar faces, but also new ones such as James Kendrick of jkOnTheRun and Susi Weaser of ShinyShiny.

Derek Snyder who had just returned from the Thailand event, came bearing gadgets! I was very interested in fondling the Treo 750 (Middle right side) and HTC Excalibur (Middle) phones. The new Treo feels so much smaller than my 650, even though it really isn’t. I really wanted to shove it in my pocket and disappear into the night! The Excalibur is also nice, but I’ve yet to become a fan of the Windows Mobile Smartphone OS. I feel like my hands are tied if I can’t tap the display with a stylus ;o)

I tried to give James and Tong a demo of the DualCor cPC device, but pressing the power button only resulted in the Blue LED lighting up and nothing else. You’ve heard the saying “The lights are on, but no one is home”? That’s pretty much how it felt. I tried to use the stock stylus to press the reset button but guess what? The tip didn’t fit. Neither did Tong’s Treo 700p stylus. Finally a discarded toothpick from a bacon wrapped scallop did the trick!

Later everyone headed outside to take part in a manly game of Toss-the-phone. The object was to see who could throw an old phone the farthest, with the top 3 receiving well earned prizes.

Rafe Blandford of allaboutsymbian.com won the grand prize of a Samsung i320, Matt Miller of geek.com won the 2nd place prize of an iRiver Clix and now I can’t remember who won 3rd place. Sorry! Not long after, I turned in for the night. On the way out, we were given a small Roadwired Pod gear pouch with a Mobius logo metal tag attached.

Day 1

The next morning, we all met bright and early for hearty breakfast in the meeting rooms of the hotel.

I was seated in between my old friend James McCarthy of gadgetme.com and new friend Michael Oryl of MobileBurn. The other attendees:

Derek Snyder, Microsoft
John Starkweather, Microsoft
Michael Gartenberg, Juniper Kagen Research
Cord Campbell, Qusers.com
Michael Ducker, Treo Central
Shane Chiang, PPCSG
Rich Brome, Phonescoop
Dan Hanntula, Pocket PC Magazine
Ryan Block, Engadget
Peter Rojas, Engadget
James Kendrick, JK on the Run
Matt Miller, ZDnet
Reggie Supildo, 1SRC
Rafe Blandford, All About Symbian
Arne Hess, theunwired.net
Nick White, Microsoft
Leigh Geary, Cool Smart Phone
Steve Sande, Gizmo Ranch
Micheal Jerz, My-Symbian.com
Paul O’Brien, Modaco
Susi Weaser, Shiny Shiny
Mike Temporale,Smartphone Thoughts
Tong Zhang, Mobile Tech Review
Chris Leckness, Aximsite

After breakfast, John Starkweather kicked off the event by welcoming all of us and reminding us just what the Mobius group stands for:

Mobius is about a never ending conversation. A group devoted to following and reporting topics and news related to mobile devices and consumer electronics.

Each of us then got up in front of the group to introduce ourselves and give a short demo on a device that we had with us. No, I didn’t try for demo #2 with the DualCor ;o) I played it safe with my good ol’Treo 650!

Things got truly underway when Derek Synder of Microsoft gave us a Windows Mobile update. He showed us some whiz bang power toys, a demo of Windows Mobile Live (which now has tabs for chats!), Xbox Live (hopefully out next year), Hurricane Tracker software, a Tony Hawk Skater Pro game on both a Dell x51v and a Motorola Q, and a Medical program that played videos of patient’s medical procedures.

Up next was Nick White of Microsoft. He gave a demo on Vista (that’s the next version of the Windows operating system, for those of you that live under a rock…). The new OS has quite a bit of yummy eye candy, and what looks to be a better photo app than Apple’s iPhoto. He also talked about a new search engine that sounds remarkably like Apple’s Spotlight. Hope it’s FASTER than Spotlight! Once Nick completed his presentation, he passed out Release Candidate CDs of Vista for all of us. Darn, I don’t have a Windows computer to test it out… and no, I don’t think I want to put it on my iMac ;o)

One of our own, Rafe Blandford (allaboutsymbian.com), gave a great presentation about… Symbian! It was a good overview of how Symbian is doing globally. 82.8 million phones as of 2006… WOW! Great job Rafe!

Jim Morrison, CEO of i-Mate gave us all a chuckle when he explained that the JAQ device was created to be an UGLY device on purpose. Supposedly, so no one would want to steal it if you took it to the pub. Hmmmmmmm, I still think he may have been pulling our legs on that one…

Sling Media who we had seen at last year’s Mobius, was back with 3 new devices. The Slingbox tuner for basic analog cable, that allows you to split the coax cable coming into your house. The Slingbox A/V, which is designed for set top box users (TIVO, DVR, Satellite receiver, etc.) has composite and s-video inputs. Both will be $179.99.

Then there is the Slingbox Pro, that has inputs and outputs galore (coax, composite, svideo, connector that allows you connect an HD device). Although the Pro does not stream HD, it does allow the signal to come into the Slingbox. The price will be $249.99 (dongle for HD $49.95).

ComVu was up as the last presenter of the day, with a very cool demo of streaming video from your phone. This is a video blogger’s dream! Really impressive…

All of us then boarded a bus and went down to the Boston harbor to take a little jaunt on the 137ft Roseway Schooner.

We had to stand around for a short time before we were allowed to board the board. John used this time to pass around some dramamine for those that might get sea sick.

I would have liked to hang out here at the harbor for hours!

All aboard! < - Or do they just say that for trains?

Left: Derek Synder of Microsoft talking to Ryan Block of Engadget and Micheal Gartenburg of Jupiter. Right: Susi Weaser of Shiny Shiny, with Tong Zhang of Mobiletechreview.

Now the Roseway is a sailboat, so we (I say that like I actually helped… ;o) had to hoist the sails with some hearty heaving and hoing!

Rich Brome of phonescoop.com, Dan Hanttula of pocketpcmag.com, and Peter Rojas of Engadget are giving it all they’ve got!

Yay! They did it!

The trip was about 3hrs round trip and it was quite enjoyable. Tong and I talked to Susi about how she got started at Shiny Shiny, and Rich Brome, Cord Campbell of Qusers.com and I spent some time talking shop about running websites.

The company was good and the food was also good! The crew served great clam chowder, which was very welcome, due to the fact that I was FREEZING! It was just a bit nippy out there on the water with the wind blowing.

View as we headed back into the harbor.

Day 2

The final day of Mobius started out with another great breakfast, which was quickly followed up with a presentation by
Wes Salmon of Microsoft (formerly pdabuzz). Wes gave us a demo of some of the new features that may be included in Crossbow (the code name
for the next version of Windows Mobile). Although Microsoft did not require us to sign an non disclosure agreement, we were
asked not to discuss any specifics with this new version. I will say that a some of the grumbles and gripes with the current
version of WM have been addressed in the next version.

Next up was Michael Gartenberg of Jupiter. Michael shared lots of statistics with us and initiated an interesting discussion on the definition of the term ‘smartphone’. What makes a phone a smartphone? The Motorola Razr can be used as a PIM, programs can be installed in memory, and you can surf with it. So why don’t we consider it a smartphone? Makes you hmmmmmmmm, doesn’t it?
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Horace Luke of Microsoft was the last presenter. He gave us a demo of some exciting new features of Photon, a future version of Windows Mobile. All I can say is “I WANT THIS NOW!”…

After lunch, the rest of the afternoon was spent working on the Mobius Project. We were split into 3 groups. Business User, Social
User and Practical User. Each group’s task was to come up with an uber device. I was part of the Practical User group, along with
James Kendrick, Steve Sande, Michael Temporale, Rafe Blandford, Peter Rojas and Michael Oryl. It might sound like an easy task to
do, but we had a heck of a time trying to pick one idea. All of the information from the 3 groups will be taken back to Horace’s
group at Microsoft, and drawn up. The great part is that they are really interested in our ideas.

The day ended too quickly, and before long I was parked at Logan airport waiting for my flight back to Indy. I tried to use my Treo 650
as a Bluetooth modem for my Powerbook, but was not successful. Although I could pair the two, the service did not show up to allow
me to use it as a modem. Then for some odd reason, Logan’s WiFi provider would not take my credit card info… so I had to just
use the Treo to surf, chat and email.

On the flight home, I sat next to a guy that uses his Treo 650 to receive status emails from nuclear power plants that he manages.
Interesting stuff!

I’m sure you’re all wondering what types of goodies Microsoft handed out to us this year… So here’s the list:

Samsung i320 Smartphone (too bad for me that it’s tri-band and I need 850mhz… sniff!)
Samsung WEP200 Bluetooth Headset
Motorola O Rokr MP3 sunglasses
Ultimate Ears Super.FI earphones
Roadwired Pod gear bag
Treocentral Leather Treo 700 case
Mobius branded sunscreen, lip balm and eye glass cleaning cloth
Stuffbak Loss protection kit
Windows Vista Release Candidate CD
Cell mate car dash no slip mat
Knee Defender

This year’s Mobius was a good one. I enjoyed meeting several new members and catching up with everyone else. I came away from this event with renewed inspiration for all things mobile!

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Mobius Boston 2006 Trip Report originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 2, 2006 at 5:58 pm.

Name: Cosimo Bernicchi
Location: Empoli, Italy

My name is Cosimo, I’m 21 years old and I am from Empoli, a little city near Florence in the magnific Tuscany, Italy!! I’m in love with every electronic thing and all my money is spent in computer and electronic stuff!

At the moment I’m a student, I’m studing as nurse at the univertsiy of Florence, and when I’m not studing or play with my “electronic babies” you can find me on ambulance service of my town where I work as a volunteer!

This is the list of my gadgets:

Athlon 64 3200+ 1,5gb Ram, 300gb SATA 2 Maxtor HardDisk, Dual Ati X1800 512 in Crossfire
A brand new macbook 2ghz with 1 gb of ram, suffering of the discolarition problem, already two top case changed!
Nokia 6680 Umts mobilephone
Mio 168 with Tom Tom 5 with one gb Sd card
Hp rx3715
Hp photosmart 335
Wacom 2 Graphic Tablet
Benq 17″ lcd Monitor
Benq Flatbed Scanner (i love Benq)
Fujifilm Finepix a350 with 512mb Xd Card
Logitech Force Feedback Joystick
Microsoft Sidewinder 2 Usb Gamepad
Sony Ericsson z1010
Apple ipod Nano 2gb
Ipod Shuffle 512mb
Canon s500 printer

These are all my actual “toys for big boys” but I have owned many many other toys which I sold to buy the new ones: Psion revo plus, Zaurus sl 5500, Medion md ppc250, Hp Jornada 548

I’ve many passion, medicine, cats, sci-fi (Star Trek, Stargate sg1, Stargate Atlantis), photography, cars, food (of course… I’m Italian ) girls (the biggest one!)

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Read about Featured Gadgeteer – Cosimo Bernicchi originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 18, 2006 at 5:47 pm.

Name: Kerry Woo
Location: Nashville, TN

Greetings from Nashville, Tennessee where the weather is great and the people are friendly! I’m Kerry and yes, I am a gadgeteer. My friends think because of my Asian roots that it is my cultural duty to perpetuate the Asian stereotype with gadgets in hand, which I don’t deny… just visit Las Vegas during a Consumer Electronics Show. For me it is almost like having a Roots experience. I’ve graduated from anything with a power cord attached to wireless and battery powered gadgets.

So in no particular order, I’ll do my best to recall the more significant gadgets in my life. My insurance agent has the full inventory listing, so I won’t bother listing everything.
Back in the sixties, as a young boy with a morning paper route, the necessities included a Philco transistor radio, butane fueled hand warmers, company issued oversized canvas bag to carry newspapers and scoring a grocery store shopping cart to deliver the Sunday papers in. With my savings, I purchased a small b/w RCA TV!

While in high school in Richmond, Virginia, technical classes were offered for three hours/credits for two years to accommodate those who wanted to pursue a non-academic, trade oriented direction. As an aspiring commercial artist, the graphic arts class blew me away! “Are you telling me that I can have 100 copies of my original artwork!?!” Cameras, light tables, printing presses, Linotype hot type machines, drafting tools, letterpresses… I knew my destiny as a gadgeteer was sealed.

My first PC was a Vic Commodore 20. I use to spend hours typing in code from magazines just to come up with a simple math addition program. My son Gary did learn to add and subtract with this basic program. I was fortunate to work at a computer store when the Apple Macintosh was introduced and for $2500, I got myself the 128K Mac, ImageWriter printer and later financed a $5700 LaserWriter Plus which I was able to parlay into a small graphic design firm while riding the momentum as a early adopter of desktop publishing. The kids at age 4 and newborn each received a Mac for Christmas. I still have them and may retrofit them as an aquarium.

This present day, I been through multiple Windows PCs – a HP Pavilion, Systemax, Dells, other HPs… but last year I got a bad case of blue screen of death reboots sickness and fell instantly in love at the Apple store with a nice iMac G5 20” screen with 500 gig of hard drive space and 1.5 of memory and JBL speakers. Yes, I’ve come full circle.

It’s networked with a bundle of NetGear “Home Digital Makeover” stuff that I won at the 2005 Consumer Electronics Show to a Xerox laser printer and the Windows PC and Dell laptop via a RangeMax Wireless Router. I’ll get around to using the NetGear Storage Central unit soon; although the Digital Music Player that wirelessly plays music from the PC through the stereo digitally skips a lot.

I’m a big Palm guy, totally blessed with working in the software end of the business with a original Palm Pilot (cracked screen and all), Sony, Zodiacs, Tungsten E and now a Treo 650 and LifeDrive. I’m having a blast using a Bluetooth tomtom Navigator for an “I’ll never have to stop and ask for directions” GPS software on the Treo.

Of course like any gadgeteer, I have a three big boxes of cables, CAT 5 cable, plugs, connectors and old cell phones with busted screens stored in the attic. You just never know when a need might arise for eight power cords!
Besides all of the other stuff like VCRs, DVDs, surround sound stereo, big 36” TV for NFL football and my favorite – DirecTV; there are shelves of VHS tapes, DVDs, 8000 mint condition phonograph records filed A to Z plus my Netflix, Flickr accounts and Napster on the PC. I’ve fallen in love with my Kodak EasyShare Z730 camera, which is a fun gadget to complement my blog (shameless promotion: http://www.wonderdawg777.blogspot.com ) The film based Minolta camera is dormant along with my Sony Camcorder.

Gadgets come and go in a circular fashion – these days it’s all about the upgrade! Having been in the music business and seen the evolution of 8 tracks to cassettes to CDs and the Sony Walkman reborn as the iPod, it simply amazes me how all ages from young to very old have embraced technology. Even my 80-year-old mother in law has ditched the VHS for a DVD player…
Here’s a revelation for me – these electronic gadgets are wonderful, but I’m telling you power tools is pure nirvana! Delta table saws, compound miter saws, cordless drills, Bosch jigsaws and all of the accessories like clamps and levels allow one to build bookshelves and desks to house of the gadgets acquired over the years! Norm Abrams, master carpenter from The New Yankee Workshop is the king of power tools.

All of this stuff is great — but it’s just stuff. If a gadget will help you stay in touch, blog, share photos, foster great personal relationships, build furniture and be a handyman to serve as a helping hand to someone in need, then in the end, it’s all good.

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Read about Featured Gadgeteer – Kerry Woo originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 25, 2006 at 6:34 pm.

Name: Jim Latimer
Location: West Berlin, New Jersey

Gadgets… look in the dictionary and my picture is next to the
definition. I sometimes say that as long as I keep my hat on, the
propeller from the top of my head won’t show too much.

I’ve been a science and gadget geek for as long as I can
remember… Trekkie in high school back in the 70′s,
meteorology/oceanography major in college, and now a HS physics
teacher for 18 years. It’s just a life that screams gadgets. It’s
just in my genes (or gear bag as the case may be).

Current Gadget list:

Palm TX
HP Pavilion ZV5410
IBM a21m
Kodak Z650
Nikon Coolpix 5600
Canon ZR300 digital camcorder
2nd gen 10gb iPod
1gb iPod shuffle
Verizon/Samsung a950
1gb PNY flash drice and other USB flash drives too numerous to
count
2 desktop computers w/wireless network to the laptops and wireless
print servers
Maxpedition Thermite versipack (as a camera bag)
Targus messenger laptop case
Colorado Special Ops sling bag (for everything else)

And I know that the Gadgeteer gene exists, because my 14 year
old son has it too… he’s the inheritor of my hand-me-down gadgets
(Palm T3, T2, m505; 3com Audrey; Olympus Camedia Zoom 4000; IBM
560; Ninos and Velos and Mobilons; Startacs and other cell
phones�anything else I outgrow and
discard).

But seriously, my gadget fetish (can I say that?) has its
purpose in keeping my life organized. As a teacher, my grades,
tests, letters and everything else resides on the laptop. I really
don’t know how I would be able to teach as effectively as I do
without the computer and internet. Online and software simulations
have become a major part of my physics course to help bring the
concepts to life. My Palm keeps my school/Scoutmaster/personal life
from conflicting too much, and the cell phone keeps me in touch
when I’m at a meeting or back in the woods with my scout troop. And
the digital camera has become a great tool for school projects,
scouting events and family memories.

My wife… she just doesn’t understand. I’ve tried to get her
into a Palm several times… she prefers paper and pencil calendars
and notes. She does like the internet and the digital camera, and
she loves her 4th gen iPod, but that�s as far
as she goes. She�s tolerant as long as the
cost doesn’t get too high. But at least I’ve got my son to carry on
the tradition!!!

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Read about Featured Gadgeteer – Jim Latimer originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 31, 2006 at 8:00 am.

Name: Torsten Kathke
Location: Munich, Germany

My name is Torsten, and I have a problem. Too many have suffered
around me, and it is time I come forward and admit it. I am a
gadgeteer. I have been called one publicly, and I must repent. The
gadgets I use are many. In listing them I will be frank and
complete, neither omit nor embellish. And I hope some of you will
feel a little better for not being as bad as me. While others might
be worse, and to those I say: Come forward yourself. You will feel
better. Plus, there’s cake at Gadgeteers Anonymous meetings.

Over the course of these past years, I have found it necessary
to acquire, in no particular order, the following:

* A PowerBook 12″, which I told myself would assisst me in the
day to day as a student.

* An iPod Shuffle, because I am just a student but still
appreciate the whiteness of its headphones. Those things break,
like, all the time tho. So I got a Nano, I needed new headphones. I
told myself. (Yes group, I realize the error of my ways.)

* An AirportExpress because I have a passionate dislike of
cables. My therapist advises against more gadgets on the grounds of
this condition, but I cannot bring myself to stop.

* A Nokia 6230 cellphone, which was picked mostly for its
gadgetarian value, not for capability to sync with the above
PowerBook, which at first did not work. It has, however, worked
beautifully ever since a surprise software update made it possible.
I also still have my first cellphone, a Motorola cd930. Also a
7089. And two backup Nokias, both purchased after the predecessors
had either been stolen or dropped by me into the shallow end of a
port-a- potty. The 3200 that suffered said fate has continued to
work after the misadventure, but I think I still smell some minty
disinfectant on it. The fact alone that I would reach into a
port-a-potty to rescue a gadget speaks volumes of my digital
depravity. Oh, the stolen phone was a Nokia 3650. Bought for much
money back when it was cool. That one day in spring when I though
it was cool, anyway.

* The famed HTC Universal (in its guise as T-Mobile’s MDA Pro),
which still does not sync with the PowerBook. It makes pretending
to be productive while on the road sooo much easier though. Apart
from that, a great device in theory, but in practice a glorified
Moleskine (I have one of those too. Do I need to mention this?)
that I hardly ever use. Like reading on it though. And listening to
Audible books. And sometimes writing things. Okay, I do use it.
Nevermind.

* Two SanDisk Cruzers. Those old ones that accept SD cards.
Because I have many SD cards. Well, three anyway.

* One SanDisk Cruzer Titanium 512. The original, accept no
substitutes. No cap to lose, weird sliding mechanism that does not
always slide so well. What’s with that?

* A Fuji S5600/S5200. For the taking of the pictures. (Hence,
alas, duh, not pictured.)

* A Logitech USB Headset. Which I thought would be used a lot.
Turns out I don’t have that many friends. It is a vicious circle,
for I seek consolation in gadgetry.

* That thing in the basement that I don’t know what it is and
why I have it, but I refuse to give it up. Plus, it came with
cables. Lots of cables.

* Bags. Bags first brought me to this site. Bags in all shapes
and sizes to hold all kinds of present, future and erstwhile
gadgets. I’ve been wanting to write erstwhile for a while. An
erstwhile. I am still on the prowl for my one perfect bag that
holds all the gadgetry the day requires. No such luck, so keep
a-reviewing gadgeteers!

* Old stuff. A Zip Drive. Remember when we all thought those
were somehow the thing of the future? A PenCam, the oldest,
crappiest one they made. Still works as a webcam tho. Gotta give it
up for crappy plastic things that still work after six years. More
stuff. Old stuff.

Thank you group. On second thought… I’m going home. Need to
charge up some batteries.

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Read About Featured Gadgeteer – Torsten Kathke originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 26, 2006 at 11:09 am.

Name: Kin Yu
Location: Hong Kong

Hong Kong, to me and a lot of my neighbors here, is a microcosm
of all that is hectic and stressful. Americans would most likely
compare it to New York. Having lived and worked in Washington DC
and traveling extensively to New York, I can only say that Hong
Kong is possibly a tad faster paced than New York. In many ways,
this is really what drives my love and need for gadgets. I’ve been
a gadget freak or gear head from quite some time. If it was a
hobby, it would be expensive, but I rationalize it this way: I need
to have the right tools to get the job done.

Most of my friends are also gadget freaks and we share a similar
problem – getting the new gear without incurring the wrath of our
wives. Our collective belief is that the smaller the better since
these will likely slip under the radar screen.

Without much ado, here’s the laundry list:

Handhelds
QTek 9100 (love the keyboard for texting and emails)
Motorola RAZR V3
Huawei 636 – free 3G trial phone from the local phone company with
3,000 minutes a month, plus all the free video calls with my
7-year-old son (only 300,000 of us in Hong Kong are using this for
the next 6 months – fair disclosure, I used to work for the local
phone company)
O2 Mini with an Eagletec SDIO WiFi card
iPaq 2215 with Socket CF WLAN card
Jabra BT800 bluetooth headset used with all the PCs and PDAs.

PCs
Thinkpad T43
Thinkpad X41 (not the tablet)
AOpen XCcube 65 (2,8 GHz with 1 GB ram)
Konica-Minolta DL2300 Color Laser
HP Photosmart 7150 and 7200 (slow, but the photo quality is
superb)
Dell 24″ flat panel display (best investment yet)
Cambridge Soundworks 4.1 speakers (5+ years old, but haven’t found
anything better for the price and/or size)
Buffalo Linkstation 250 GB network drive
Buffalo Drivestation 250 GB USB disk
Assorted external USB drives – totaling 1 terabyte (mostly for
family videos and photos)

Others
5G iPod 30 GB
iPod Shuffle
Nikon D100 and assorted lenses
Canon ixus 430 – 4 megapixel camera

Sitting on the shelves throughout the house
Thinkpad 600X – serving as a webcam
Panasonic BL-C10 IPCam
Neuston Virtuoso MC-500 media player

Things my children have inherited
iPaq 3850 – used as a PDA and an MP3 player
ECS EZ Buddie pc with Buzz Lightyear mouse
G3 iMac 450 MHz with DVD

Some may call it an obsession, but as I stated up top, my
principle is to use the right tools to do the right job. My love
affair with gadgets began a long time ago, but really gained steam
about 10 years ago. By luck, I was given additional
responsibilities at work which meant carrying two titles at the
same salary. With two jobs, my schedule was crazy – crazy to the
point where my secretary couldn’t keep up with updating my
calendar. Thankfully, I had a Palm Pilot and it was something that
was catching on in our company of 15,000. It was a thrill the first
time a colleague and I beamed meeting schedules to each other via
the Palm Pilot. It was an even bigger thrill to just plug it back
into the cradle on my desk and my secretary would be able to see
what I was up to. This really allowed her to let my boss know where
I was when he called. That hectic period of my life fully converted
me into a gear head since I’m a believer that these gadgets are
tools which help to make my life easier and more enjoyable (the
frustrations of resets aside).

Even though I worked for the local phone company, I was never a
big user of mobile (or cellular as North Americans call them)
phones. I was a fixed line guy. However, having started my own
business in recent years, I have come to be heavily dependent on
wireless communications. I no longer have a fixed line for my
business, but I have two mobile phones. My faxes arrive through
eFax and Skype (installed on all my notebooks and PDAs) has been
(to quote former FCC Commissioner Michael Powell) “a gift from
God”. Even with a combined 2,400 minutes on my two main mobiles, my
son, my wife and my business associates seem to be able eat up the
minutes in no time flat.

At home and in my little office, I am completely WiFi enabled.
This is especially necessary at home since we live in an apartment
(very few houses here) which is not conducive to running wires
since every wall is a thick supporting wall unlike the wooden
frames of most homes in North America. Practically speaking, few
people would run Cat 5 cable through their homes in Hong Kong
unless they happen to be renovating their homes. To get full access
at home, I run a pair of Buffalo wireless routers with the second
one acting as an extension. This allows me to check emails and surf
from the comfort of my bed.

Some of my friends have asked me why I bother with all this
stuff. The answer to me has been simple. My eldest son, Nicholas,
and I used to lie in bed just before his bedtime and watch movie
trailers off the net (there were bedtime stories too). Today, his
younger brother, Kevin who’s 2, enjoys the same. It’s quality time.
This is really what it boils down to, the ability to do these
things whenever and wherever I happen to be.

My wife? She just keeps rolling her eyes. Of course, she does
that with her new Motorola SLVR L7 with MP3s loaded on to the
transflash card. I’m sure she’ll get around to enjoying it once she
figures out the Motorola menu system.

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Read About Featured Gadgeteer – Kin Yu originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 14, 2006 at 1:57 pm.

I bought a used CLIE NX70v
on eBay a few weeks ago for AU$200 because I wanted a PDA that I
could use at school to enter data with. I recently trimmed down to
just carrying an imate SP5 smartphone (very similar to the SP5m
reviewed on The-Gadgeteer) which is fantastic as a phone and
read-only PDA, but it was terrible for text entry. The first week
back at school had me longing for my touch-screened, keyboarded PDA
(previously the imate KJAM) for entering homework and other stuff
into my PDA.

I got the NX70 because of
its high-res screen, keyboard and reasonable price. I also secretly
got it because a flip CLIE is something that I had wanted since the
day they came out

When I received it I loaded
up everything onto it, bought a few accessories (USB sync/charge
cable, AAA battery extender), as well as a Sony WL110 CF WiFi card
(still to receive). After a few days I found the NX70 really
sucked. The eBay seller hadn’t stated battery performance, so I
didn’t really have any recourse with him. I knew that the life I
was getting was not near-new, as only about 1hr of standard use
(and max of 30-40mins music) would have battery warnings going off
everywhere. I knew this would be even worse when I stated to use
the WiFi card, which made me start looking around for a replacement
battery.

I initially thought that it
would be reasonably difficult to do, replacing the battery. After a
few Google searches I found some very rudimentary instructions on
how to do it. It seemed that all I needed to do was undo 5 screws
on the back/side and I would have access. Sounds easy? Read on to
find out just how easy it was. This procedure will be identical for
the NX60 as it is the NX70 without the camera.

First thing I did was use
the built-in backup utility to backup my device. By disconnecting
the old battery, all RAM will be cleared (aka.
Hard-reset).

One thing to remember is
that if you use a Memory Stick Pro (or Pro Duo in a MS adaptor) is
that it won’t be accessible after the hard-reset because it
requires an update. To use it again, I created a new Hotsync ID to
just install the MS Pro Update. Once that is installed the card is
readable again in your NX70 and you can restore your backup. You
can then delete the new Hotsync ID from your computer.

"/assets/replacement-battery-clie-nx70v1.jpg"/> "/assets/replacement-battery-clie-nx70v2.jpg"/>

The battery I bought
generic one branded “Power Runner” and rated at 1100mAh. It was
quite cheap, only costing me AU$19 (about US$14).

"/assets/replacement-battery-clie-nx70v3.jpg"/> "/assets/replacement-battery-clie-nx70v4.jpg"/>

It arrived quite quickly
and in a sealed (not sticky-taped) anti-static bag.

The back screws on the NX70
are star-shaped, but I found my small Phillips (not flathead)
screwdriver worked perfectly and griped the screw without any
slipping.

"/assets/replacement-battery-clie-nx70v5.jpg"/> "/assets/replacement-battery-clie-nx70v6.jpg"/>

First thing to do is remove
the five screws. There are 4 on the back and one on the left side
below the hold button. When removing the screw on the side it will
release a small panel. Unfortunately this does not let you remove
the battery like I first thought it might. Continue to remove the 4
back screws.

"/assets/replacement-battery-clie-nx70v7.jpg"/> "/assets/replacement-battery-clie-nx70v8.jpg"/>

When all the screws are out
you will be able to remove the back in a simple vertical manoeuvre
(aka. Lift it straight up ). You will be presented with the
motherboard, CF slot and our target: the battery.

"/assets/replacement-battery-clie-nx70v9.jpg"/> "/assets/replacement-battery-clie-nx70v10.jpg"/>

The battery is basically
just sitting there, but it is attached to a piece of tape. This is
just plastic, and not anything functional like a ribbon cable.
Rather than try to put it off with force in such a delicate space,
I just snipped it with a pair of scissors. My tape was affixed very
well to the battery, but yours may not be.

"/assets/replacement-battery-clie-nx70v11.jpg"/> src="/assets/replacement-battery-clie-nx70v12.jpg"/>

Once you have cut/unstuck
the tape you will be able to lift the battery out. Disconnect the
cable connecting the battery to the motherboard.

"EN-AU">NOTE: At this point your
device will loose ALL power and will be hard-reset (all
settings/programs/data erased).

"/assets/replacement-battery-clie-nx70v13.jpg"/>

The replacement battery is
the same size and shape as the original.

"/assets/replacement-battery-clie-nx70v14.jpg"/>

Before connecting the new
battery, make a crease in the cable about halfway along (as shown
in the picture below). The new battery’s cable was straight, but to
fit it must have a crease in the middle and be stacked at the top
of the battery.

Connect the new battery to
the motherboard with the contacts FACE UP. I believe it to only go
in one way (slight force did not allow it to go in upside-down for
me) so you shouldn’t have too much problem trying to insert it the
correct way. When I connected it my device turned on straight away
(you will here the CLIE boot sounds). Just press the power button
to turn it off.

"/assets/replacement-battery-clie-nx70v15.jpg"/>

Once the cable is
connected, seat the battery in about the sync connector. Make sure
that the cable is folded above the battery like the original
was.

"/assets/replacement-battery-clie-nx70v16.jpg"/>

Once the battery is seated
you can put the back case back on. Screw the 4 screws in, but don’t
do them too tightly as it could break something. Make sure they are
firm, but don’t over do it. Then attach the battery door on the
left side. I had to reseat the battery cable as it was poking out a
bit. I used the battery door to push it back in when tightening the
screw.

"/assets/replacement-battery-clie-nx70v17.jpg"/>

When you turn it on you
should be presented with the Palm OS welcome screen. After you
complete this, you can restore your MS Backup. If you have a MS Pro
or Pro Duo follow my instructions above (when you were creating the
backup).

Make sure you dispose of
the old battery properly according to whatever procedures your
local area has regarding that sort of thing. I am going to keep my
original battery in case I ever need it.

"/assets/replacement-battery-clie-nx70v18.jpg"/>

And there you have it, a
CLIE with a brand new battery! My CLIE has been functioning great
with the new battery. Today I used it as much as I had previously,
and where my old battery showed 60% the new battery still shows
100%! I will update this when I have used the battery a bit
more.

I highly recommend this
replacement to anyone who has a CLIE with a dying battery who wants
to keep their current model. This procedure should work fairly
similarly for other NR/NX CLIEs too. My replacement was bought off
eBay and is compatible with the
NR70/NX60/NX70/NX73/NX80.

UPDATE 3/2/2006: I
have been using the new battery for several days now and it is
excellent. I can get several days of use from the CLIE without a
problem. That includes use of the PIM functions, several games and
other playing around. Using WiFi I get about 2.5hrs of use. It has
definitely improved the usability of the CLIE, as now I don’t have
to constantly check the battery level.

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Installing a CLIE NX70v Replacement Battery originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 13, 2006 at 1:15 pm.

Name: Gregory Guida
Location: British Channel Islands

I started being interested by gadgets more than thirty years ago
when the first electronic products appeared. I remember going to
school with the first electronic pen watch, pen calculator (stolen
from me by a classmate, an event I haven’t got over yet),
programmable calculator (a Texas Instrument TI58) and the first LED
watches. My first computer was an Apple II+ with 16KB of RAM to
which I eventually added disk drives and an Epson FX80 printer
before changing it to a Macintosh 512K circa 1984. It then evolved
into a Mac II, Mac IIfx, Powermac 8500, G3, G4 400, G4 450 and G4
2×976 to which I added the first 20″ LCD, soon changed to a 23″. I
am now working on a G5 2×2.5 with the fabulous 30″ Cinema Screen.
Beside these, I have a “desktop lamp” iMac 20″ which I use for
video production and a few G4 act as servers for my home automation
system (10 Macs and 2 PCs around the house in total).

On the portable front, My first machine was a Toshiba T1000
(DOS, monochrome not backlit LCD, 1 floppy) then a Powerbook 100,
280c, G3 230, G4 Titanium and now, an AiBook 1GHz. I also use some
sort of Compaq for the aviation programs that only run on Windows
XP.

I still have all those computers to which I added some
collectibles from the 70s and 80s, a total of about 120 machines
plus about 30 calculators and hand held computers of the same era.
I also have a small collection of “function” watches, including the
Seiko Watchman and the beautiful Porsche Design Compass Watches. I
now wear a Breitling Emergency with the built in 121.5MHz built-in
ELT.

The collection of course extend to video games, especially
portable ones and I have accumulated all the Game boy models
(except the virtual boy which I am still looking for) as well as a
selection of Sega and Atari hand held plus some Japanese oddities
such as the Wonderswan.

On the PDA front, I started in 1980 with the pocket computers
Sharp PC1200, then 1500, 1600 (with its tiny floppies and A4
tracer), 1250 and 1350, a Casio PF-8000 in 83 (a remarkable machine
for its time with an area you could draw letters on with your
finger) then a Sharp IQ7000, 8000, 9000, ExpertPad PI-700 (an Apple
Newton made by Sharp), Newton 2000, Atari Portfolio, Casio
Cassiopea E115, Toshiba E570, Palm V, Sony Clie T625, Sony Clie
NR70V, Palm Tungsten, Sony Clie UX50, Palm Tungsten 3 (I bought a 5
but was disappointed by the poor quality and lack of microphone so
gave it away, I looked at the LifeDrive, too big, too slow, too
late and at the Tungsten X, same problems as the 5 and now am not
sure what to upgrade too. I have lost too much hair over Pocket PCs
to want to go back to them).

One of my hobbies is house automation and I laid down more than
3000 meters of wire in my house in Scotland. Each room would
receive a bundle of Sat Coaxial, Ant Coaxial, Loudspeakers,
Telephone, Alarm and the essential Cat6 Ethernet. These all went to
a small room where I centralised the services: telephone exchange,
fax server, computer based answering machine, weather station, X10
controller, music and video servers, web and email servers and
HiFi/Home Cinema remote. Some of the Cat6 were dedicated to IP
video cameras (6 in total) and the whole interface was web based so
I could access and control all these from anywhere in the world.
Now I am faced with the daunting task of starting the wiring from
scratch (but on the other hand, I only have to lay Ethernet cables
since everything nowadays can run on them including the fabulous
Sonos system I use now).

Below, the house network being assembled in Scotland: 24
Ethernet clients, 20 telephone extensions, 60 X10 terminals, 6 IP
cameras, 3 MP3 network players, 1 EyeHome network player, Alarm
system, SlinkE home cinema interface, Phlink Mac based answering
machine, the Mac built-in network fax, a QMS 3100 Network Colour
Laser printer

I have always been interested in photography so have had a long
range of cameras and having turned professional recently my kit is
pretty up to date. I started with a Zenit E (a very poor russian
SLR), went on to a few point and shoot, then a Canon AE1, Minolta
7000, 700i, 9xi, and finally 9 with a nice selection of lenses. For
underwater use I bought a Nikonos 5 and, later a Nikonos RS with
all accessories and lenses (which I managed to drown on its first
dive!). I had the first Canon Ixus (Elph) APS, then a Powershot Pro
70, the Digital Ixus, Ixus II, 700 and 750. Then, having waited so
long for Minolta to do a Digital SLR, I bought a Canon 10D then an
EOS 1DsII and all the lenses necessary for Wildlife Photography. I
have a couple of telescopes, a portable ETX90 and a static LX90
with which I intended to do astronomy photography but haven’t come
around to it yet (not much of a sky in Scotland).

Doing both aviation and boating, I was fascinated by GPS as soon
as it became available so I bought the first one, a Sony Pyxis.
This impractical behemoth was soon replaced by a stream of Garmins
ending in 12cx, eTrex, eTrex Vista and eTrex Vista c. For aviation
purposes, I used first a Garmin 190 then a 196. I didn’t go further
as those handhelds are not very useful flying IFR and I have two
GNS430 on my panel.

I also have a weakness for walkie-talkies and have about 10
pairs, including the fabulous XACT wrist watch and the still
unsurpassed Alinco DJ-C5T (VHF and UHF transceivers). I have been
fairly reasonable with mobiles phones, starting with the first
Motorola DynaTac and changing 11 or 12 times until today’s Sony
K700i. I did get a Motorola 9505 Iridium SatPhone which I love to
death even if I only use it once or twice a year while on
expedition (cellular reaches almost everywhere nowadays).

Finally, I have three Aibos: ERS 110, 210 and 7 and heard with
dismay that Sony just stopped development on them. I might start
collecting them soon.

I am also a petrolhead and have accumulated a few sport and
classic cars, none, unfortunately, with outlandish kit. I don’t see
it happening in the near future, but I would love to rebuild a four
wheel drive (a Toyota Amazon) “expedition” style with all possible
gadgets and/or an old limo (a RR Phantom 5 preferably) with a built
in home theatre. Maybe someday.

I prepared the picture below for the Scott eVest web site. It
shows the vest loaded with all the kit on the right. Remarkably, it
all fits well but the computer in the back pocket is quite
vulnerable (don’t sit!). While I would probably not wear everything
on me, this selection is my normal travelling gear and was prepared
for a round the world trip I did in 2004. Notable items include the
Yoshinaga titanium flask (brilliant but not easy to find outside of
Japan), the Titanium Thermos (superb but very expensive), the Zeiss
5×10 pen monocular (small and light, the perfect alternative to
binoculars), the Fisher Space Pen (everybody should have one), the
Buck Knives BuckTool (unfortunately discontinued, the best of the
Leatherman style pocket tools by far), the Motorola 9505 Iridium
Phone (call home from the North Pole), a pair of pocket Sony Noise
Reduction earphones (essential in noisy aeroplanes) and the Petzl
Zipka Head Torch (easily the most practical and versatile light in
the World). The little grey and blue thingy is the smallest
electric shaver I could find, but I am still looking.

Today, I would add my Sony PSP, iPod and about 50 pounds of
Canon camera equipment.

I skipped over the video, HiFi, walkmen and all the nice
trekking and climbing gadgets but I hope the above makes me a bona
fide Gadgeteer!

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Read About Featured Gadgeteer – Gregory Guida originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 6, 2006 at 6:18 pm.

Name: Alan Ng
Location: Singapore

Hi! I’m Alan from Singapore. I’m 21 years old now. First, I have to say that I’m a gadget freak. My primal obsession with gadgets has made me spend lots of money on them. (Sometimes my mom nags me for that.) Currently on my inventory list, I have gadgets from big to small. They are mostly on my table in my room or lying somewhere in my room.

My workbench

Currently on my workbench, I place my frequently used gadgets on it. The list is pretty long.

Philips HDD070 2GB Mp3 player
NEC N600i i-mode Handphone (3G)-The clamshell phone
V3 BTH3 Bluetooth earpiece
Nokia 6021
HP PSC 1210
Panasonic RP-HJE50 earphone
External 20GB HDD
Samsung TS-H552U DVD writer in external casing
Sony Clié PEG-TG50
Timex 585 Heart rate monitor
Fossil Big Tic Watch (With matrix style animation)
Belkin 7 port USB 2.0 Hub
Altec Lansing 221 2.1 channel speakers
IBM Thinkpad R40
Microsoft S+arck mouse
Linksys 802.11B PCMCIA Adapter

My other gadgets:

Thomson Alcatel Speedtouch 570 wireless ADSL router (Not in picture)
Sony Cybershot DSC-T5 (Not in picture-I use it to take the shot above!)
Iomega Zip 100 drive

My love for gadgets started way back in around year 2000 when I was 16 years old. I just started working part time after I finish my school leaving exam and as I will be going on to a tertiary institute to further my studies, I thought that something to help me organize myself will be useful. So I looked around and a PDA seems to do the job well. So I got my first gadget, the Sony Clié PEG-S300. I was one of the pioneer user of this PDA in Singapore. It is really useful and it has helped me to keep my schedule and contacts in order. Sometimes, it entertains me as well with games that I have downloaded from the net. It lasted me for years before it retires.

The PEG-S300-First Clié by Sony

After the PEG-S300, I also play with many other PDAs. Some of the models I have owned previously include the Ipaq 3870 and Toshiba e310. Basically I play with PDAs that run on Microsoft Pocket PC and Palm OS. I also do development of software for PPC in my leisure time using Microsoft Visual Studio.net. Eventually, I changed to a Sony PDA again. This time, the PEG-TG50. It is still serving me well and it is part of my bluetooth personal area network. I call it my mini brain.

Another major asset I have is my trusty laptop. Currently I am using an IBM thinkpad R40. It is currently 3 years old and it is still working well except for its battery which is dead basically. It is my main brain and I use it to surf the web at home on my 802.11B wireless network. Other than surfing the web with it, I also use it for development purpose, entertainment (Music/video etc), synchronising with my PDA and working on projects during my tertiary days. Previously I use a Toshiba Satellite 3000 that lasted me for only 2 years.

Another gadget that I am obsessed with is handphone. I use it everyday and it is always by my side. I started off as a handphone user when I was about 15 years old. Back then, I use an Ericsson 628. (My goodness, that is a dinosaur now!) Few years later I upgraded to a Nokia 8210. Subsequently, I upgraded to an Ericsson T39 with Bluetooth. But as phones get better and better, I find myself caught in this endless chase of technology. I begin to change to phones like Sony Ericsson T310, Sony Ericsson K508i and eventually the Nokia 6021 that I am using now. The Nokia 6021 is an excellent no frails phone. It has Bluetooth, Infra-red, color screen, polyphonic and no camera. I am very happy with it. But recently, a telecommunication service provider in Singapore brought in i-mode from japan and they invite users to participate in the trial. The gadgeteer in me tells me to jump at this opportunity. (I love to be an early adopter.) Therefore I register for the trial and I am selected. They offer me a trial phone for free for this trial and I selected the NEC N600i 3G mobile phone. I have just received this phone not long ago and I am enjoying it so far. Surfing the net on it is fast and i-mode contents are great.

Basically, I love technology and I enjoy the convenience that technology brings. Therefore I will continue to hunt for more gadgets that will help me in my life. Of course, the gadgeteer website is a place where I visit very often to help me with my gadget hunt!

Feel free to drop by at my blog.

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Read About Featured Gadgeteer – Alan Ng originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 27, 2006 at 2:01 pm.

Name: Ruth Bygrave
Location: Ipswich, UK

My Gadgetary Life…

…is a bizarre combination of thrift and extravagance.

On the one hand, I’ve only just gone this year from a succession of nameless mongrel PC clones to a pedigree box (Dell); on the other hand, I’m the only person I know with 32mb of memory in my wristwatch on the principle that it might be useful and I know where it is.

Most of the gadgets I try out and don’t like enough get ploughed back into e-bay. Most of my PDAs (Zire 71, Tungsten T and iPaq 2210) were perfectly competent devices that I didn’t use enough to justify keeping them. I loved pretty LIT e-books–but I can read ordinary PDB e-books on a less good screen with tons more battery life. I liked having videos in DivX on my handheld, but it took ages to get them right, and I use audio a lot more than video. None of them were actually bad, but nor did I miss them when they’d gone.

Conversely, if I ever mislay my current mp3 player for a few hours I’m tearing my hair out and checking under the cat or any likely cushions. My boyfriend tends to get annoyed at the fact that what my current mp3 player is changes rather frequently, but even he has to admit that it does get very heavily used.

Also, I try to make my gadgets look cute, ordinary or personalised as much as possible, to minimise the likelihood of them getting nicked. My Neo keyboard is festooned with cat stickers, because I like cats, and because anything to discourage the thing looking like an expesnive laptop is OK by me.

Here is a picture of the Neo keyboard festooned with cat stickers, being pawed by my beautiful white ‘laptop’ of the furry kind. I’m not good at self-portraits, and this is a gadgetty picture

If I described all the gadgets I’d tried in a long list, that would probably end up sort of boring. Instead, I’ll put down my off-the-cuff reactions to the memorably good or bad ones, with the caveat that this is personal opinion, and how:

TEN TRIUMPHS AND TURKEYS

TRIUMPH: Microwriter keyboard. A wonder of ergonomics after which I hated being dragged kicking and screaming towards Qwerty.
TRIUMPH: Neo keyboard. Designed to be thrown about by small children and keep working.
TRIUMPH: iPod mini. Hate the embarrassing fashion-bling angle, love the extras and configurability.
TRIUMPH: MS Comfort Keyboard. Comfortable ergonomic design without being a split keyboard.
TRIUMPH: Macally Syncbox. For when you really need a standalone USB host in your pocket.

TURKEY: Frogpad Bluetooth Keyboard. Astounding combination of hardware innovation and software ineptitude. Also actually almost gave me RSI where Qwerty had failed.
TURKEY: MS Comfort Mouse. Horribly sensitive to RF interference
TURKEY: Microwriter Agenda keyboard. From the sublime to the ridiculous.
TURKEY: Panasonic SV-SD05 SD mp3 player cum headphones. Excellent idea crippled by brain-dead proprietary software, transcoding, and a painfully-slow USB card reader which had to be used instead of the USB 2.0 one I already had.

TURKEY: WATCH THIS SPACE
(Damn, can’t think of a last turkey. The ROKR would probably be it, because I believe what I’ve read about it, but I haven’t experienced its putative turkeytude for myself)

My current obsession is setting up a blog/podcast for audiobook fans, because I couldn’t find an enthusiast’s site for reviews and reactions already there and I had a really good idea for a title.

The site A Book in Both Ears is now up and stumbling. There are only a few pages up so far, and one podcast, (and one amazingly cute feline pin-up picture…), but it’s on its way.

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Read About Featured Gadgeteer – Ruth Bygrave originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 29, 2005 at 6:16 pm.