Archive for the ‘Tech Reviews’ Category

My day to day laptop bag is overloaded and heavy.  I need something that will fit just the essentials for a quick trip to the coffee shop or a few days at a conference.  That was the problem statement that led to the 2009 bag-off contest that compared 5 different bags in an attempt to find the best performing small messenger bag.

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As frustrated as we were with the Cradlepoint wifi gateway, it was still the best solution for sharing EVDO over wifi.  However, the cradlepoint lost that title in the first ten seconds of the first round when squared off against the new Verizon MiFi.

The MiFi is a beautiful device, both in terms of appearance and performance.  After a quick initial set-up it just worked flawlessly creating a bubble of wifi everywhere I went.  Want to watch SlingBox on your iPhone?  No problem with the MiFi.  Want to make SIP calls via your iPod touch or Nokia N810?  Both worked instantly.

For all the frustration we endured with the Cradlepoint, the MiFi has brough nothing but smiles.  It just works and works well.  Press the power button, wait 10 seconds or less, and you can connect to Verizon’s superior EVDO network.  The MiFi supports up to five devices which is a comfortable number for most road warriors.  I was able to connect my MacBook Pro, iPhone and Nokia n810 with no problems. Obviously, they are sharing the limited bandwidth but did so with no hiccups or issues.

I haven’t encountered any of the strange proxy or firewall issues I experienced with the CP, and have not missed the hours of troubeshooting and tech support which resulted in none of my issues being resolved.

If you have a need for EVDO access, the MiFi is highly recommended.

(SORRY TO ONE OF THE COMMENTORS BELOW.  ACCIDENTALLY DELETED YOUR MESSAGE)

I’ve lamented many times over the lack of truly portable speakers for travel.  By definition, truly portable means they need to fit into my laptop bag easily without taking up too much space and can be powered by my computer or an adapter I already carry.  I’ve tried several different variations, but none established a permanent residence in my gear bag until I was introduced to the Small Dog manufactured Chill Pill.

The Chill Pill is an egg-shaped object about the size of a small fist.  Within this egg-shaped device is everything you need to play portable sound via a standard headphone jack.  The Chill Pill separated into two parts, which when combined are held together magnetically to achieve that aerodynamic compact egg-shape.  Once separated, you pull out a retractible USB caple which wires the two speakers together.  Another retractible cable contains a mini-headphone jack which can be connected to your audio source.  Power the Chill Pill on and you have a nice compact speaker system.  Turn the tops of the individual speakers counter-clockwise and they expand to provide better sound quality and bass.  When down, retract the cables, collapse the speakers, and connect them back together magnetically.  To charge, simply connect the USB cable to your computer or an external USB power source.  Since the Chill Pill uses mini-USB, you will need an adapter (included) to charge via most computers.

The chill pill is a nicely engineered solution for those that want truly portable speakers as part of their road warrior kit.

The Chill Pill is available at Small Dog stores and also via Amazon.

I’ve been using the new T-Mobile/Google T1 Android phone for a week and have a few initial observations.

First, this is a decent phone with a nice feature set.  It is able to make calls, browse the web, get email, and has some basic GPS functions.  However, the phone comes off as lacking a certain sense of polish.  In fact, the best analogy I can think of is that it is what I would expect a next generation Palm OS to look like if they hadn’t fallen off the face of the earth.  In a week of use, here is what I have found:

1)  Phone works well.  No real complaints on making and receiving calls.

2) Browser works well, but has some very annoying quirks.  For example, every time I touch the screen to scroll, it brings up a zoom button which obscures part of what I am reading.  Very annoying.

3)  Media playback is abhorent.  I know that many say it is tolerable, but I’ve found it really lacking.  The fact that no video application was provided shows that Google does not consider this to be a media device.

4) Market place is well done, but I’d like a way to browse the market from my desktop, not just the phone.  As the number of apps increases, browsing via the phone will be increasingly difficult.

5) Keyboard works great.  No complaints.  Same with the trackball.

6) Data speeds are fine over Edge and 3G (which turned on in my market yesterday)

7)  Having two email apps is annoying.  In addition, there seems to be an auto-complete bug in the non-Gmail mail application which makes the feature non-functioning.  Additionally, even though my email provider is G-mail on my secondary account, the mail application does not include any features like starring a message that are present in the primary email application.

Overall, the marketplace will really define whether I carry this phone in addition to my iPhone.  If the market delivers applications for Sling, Qik, Skype, and other critical apps missing on my iPhone it will be worth having the G1 around.  If no innovative applications arrive, I’d have a hard time committing to carrying this phone, even as a backup.