Gadget of the week #9

This week's gadget of the week is another gadget that I got for my wife for xmass -- the Motorola IHF1000 Bluetooth Car Kit. I had, in the past, purchased several different headphone options for my wife including good quality bluetooth headsets and wired headsets. None of them worked for her, mostly because of the need to pull them out and get them setup in her car while she was driving. So I went looking for a permanent installation kit and found this kit from Motorola.

Obtaining the item before xmass was a bit of a problem as I ordered it from Amazon and the item that they shipped to me was a $9.95 Palm Treo skin, not the IHF1000. After explaining the problem to them, they re-ordered it for me, but low and behold the same Palm Treo skin arrived again at which point they told me I should get it from someone else as there was clearly something wrong in their distribution systems. So I found one online at CellularAccessory.com for just $180, free shipping and in stock (and it was shipped the same day) -- Amazon's loss.

I was planning on doing the installation myself (I had installed a number of stereos and other automotive equipment in my younger days), but after looking at her car (a Ford Explorer) and at the installation kit, I gave up. I stopped by the local Best Buy and they agreed to install it for $80. Best $80 that I've spent in a long while. The installation went great (just about an hour) and looked way better than any installation I would have done.

The unit itself is great. Once you pair the phone (very easy through their voice prompts), the unit recognizes the phone's presence and announces that the phone is ready when you start the car -- no need to even pull the phone out of your pocket or purse. You can also program up to 20 voice programmed numbers (and more if your phone supports voice dialing). What amazed me about the voice programming was that I was able to program one of the numbers with my voice and my wife was able to use it with her voice -- pretty cool voice recognition going on there.

Call quality is very clear from both ends and my wife now usually answers the phone on the first ring and with much less distraction on her side.

Unlike many older systems that always waited for a voice command (and frequently picked up on noises in the car, such as the radio, instructing it to phone someone in the calling list while you quickly tried to abort), this system requires that you touch the command button (center button, easy to find/press) to start a sequence, eliminating the false commands problem.

We're so happy with the system that I plan to buy another one for my truck.

Tags : gadget / Motorola / IHF1000 / bluetooth / Amazon / Best Buy / palm / treo / razr

Gadget of the week #8

My gadget this week is a present that I got for my wife for Christmas. She loves it... I love it... They've come a long way.

The Philips 9" Digital Photo Frame.

This thing has a bright clean display (so much better than my several years old 5" Digi-Frame (they seem to have gone out of business) that cost more than double the price) and holds tons of pictures on it's internal memory (if you reduce them, you can get between 100 and 150 pictures on there).

The most useful feature, perhaps, is the fact that it is powered by battery (in addition to the wired power). So when you have some friends come to visit they don't have to bend over in front of your table, you can pick it up, unplug it and let them look at the photos in their lap.

This is a great gift idea (I bought mine on amazon for $220 (although they are now listing them at $249), especially for your mother.

Tags : philips / digital photo frame / photo

Merry Christmas

My family and I want to wish everyone a safe and joyous holiday (and stop reading blogs on your day off -- other than mine, of course :-)) .

Tags : christmas

Mindstorms

After helping Paul get around discriminatory pricing against Canadians and find a US-priced Lego Mindstorms NXT at a local Target store in Portland (while we were at the Liberty Alliance TEG F2F meeting nearby -- that good enough Russ?), my interest in the product for one of my kids grew.

We had bought a prior version of Lego Mindstorms for our son years ago and he played with it a little bit, but never really got into it (he's much more interested in video games and now especially DDR). So it pretty much sat there and gathered dust, even as all 3 of our kids can still sit around for hours playing with Legos.

So, last week, I had our daughters out for an xmass shopping trip and as we walked around the toys aisle, I asked Jessica if she thought she might like the Mindstorms set. She looked at me aghast and said "no way". We had already fulfilled CJs gifts, so that was that. No Mindstorms for us this year.

Alas, we're still short on a nice present for Jessica, so I broached the subject with her again, asking her if she even knew what it was. When I explained that it was a robotic system where she could program it to do things, react to things, move about, etc. she still just said "huh" (like: boring!).

Shortly thereafter, as I was searching for something else to buy for her, she runs into my office and shouts (yeah, really shouts):

"Hey Dad, you can get me that mindstorms stuff... because if I learn how to control it the possibilities are endless."

Guess we're going shopping again. Of course I had to ask her if there were other things she might want (can't let her or you know if she's really getting that until after xmass, but it was still a good story -- even my wife said that I needed to blog her comment).

Tags : christmas / lego / mindstorms / mindstorms nxt / target / ddr / liberty alliance

Gift Cards or Cash... that is the question?

I was out Christmas shopping with my wife over the weekend and she was looking for a gift for our kids' teachers. For some, she selected a Barns & Noble gift cards and for others she selected Starbucks gift cards (mostly based on what stores she thought would be close).

My first thought is why not just give cash. Cash is definitely much more portable in that you can use it anywhere. Cash also retains its value forever (many gift cards start to lose value after 6 months to a year). And, Cash usually isn't misplaced in a drawer somewhere -- the recipient usually just puts it directly into their wallet/pocket.

But, there seems to be a negative aura around giving cash. Like the giver has put more thought into the present by selecting a store wherein the recipient is restricted for any purchases. Somehow the fact that the giver likely spent time waiting in line (and getting the people behind her to grumble when the cashier took so long figuring out how to charge up the gift card).

But this negative aura isn't everywhere. For weddings, it's usually fine to give cash. But for birthdays and especially for Christmas (or other holidays) there seems to be a some social drive to not give cash.

For me, you can feel free to just give me cash for any celebration. I'll never look down at receiving cash. In fact, I'd say it's preferred in many cases as nobody else can figure out the things I really need like I can :-).

Not that I'd look down at receiving a gadget either.

Tags : gift / christmas / holiday / cash / gift+card / starbucks

Merry Christmass

A geeky Christmas Card from a colleague at Intel.

Happy holidays to all!

Tags : christmas