tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7270109117336796712024-03-13T09:59:23.480-07:00The betabob blogRandom rants and raves about my personal technology and the local dining scenebetabobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03907282560949252359noreply@blogger.comBlogger40125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727010911733679671.post-5468369356547836922016-10-21T15:31:00.003-07:002016-10-21T15:31:57.577-07:00Quick Oakland Restaurant Update - October 2016Okay, a few folks have mentioned to me recently that they've enjoyed read my blog, so now I feel shamed into posting some new content after a two-year hiatus.<br />
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The restaurant scene in Oakland continues to evolve nicely, though I have to admit I'm a little annoyed by all the hipster bars that are popping up left and right. Don't get me wrong...I'm all for a good bar scene but I think we're getting over saturated with bars and the City of Oakland seems to be handing out liquor licenses like they're going out of style. Would love to see a few less bars and a few more food-centric businesses in their place...but that's just me.<br />
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I'm also happy to say that most of the restaurants I've written about before are still going as strong as ever. However, there have been a few notable closings within the past year or so. <b>B-Side BBQ</b>, easily my favorite BBQ in the East Bay, sadly closed earlier this year because they were having a hard time making things work financially. I found it a little surprising, as every time I've gone there business seemed pretty good and they were also handling a lot of takeout orders. However, their location was admittedly a bit sketchy...I bet if they were in Uptown they would still be going gangbusters. Two of James Syabout's restaurants also fell victim in recent months. The first, <b>Box and Bells</b>, closed early last year. That location in Rockridge seems to be a huge jinx or something, as no restaurant has ever been able to make it work there long term. Also, I think everyone is so health conscious these days and weren't so keen on their heavier, gastropub style of food...of course I am a big exception! <b>The Dock at Linden Street</b> also just closed within the past few weeks, but will supposedly get relaunched in several months. I think one of their big challenges is location as well...it's a terrific space, but located in an area of West Oakland that is largely unknown and not well trafficked. Of course, with all the hipsters moving to West Oakland that could end up changing real soon! And lastly, <b>Stag's Lunchette</b>, my go to sandwich place in Uptown, abruptly closed a couple of months ago. I was pretty shocked to hear this, as the place was always slammed during lunch...this in spite of the fact that I felt they overcharged for their product.<br />
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Okay, now for some notable openings within the past year or so:<br />
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<a href="http://calaveraoakland.com/" target="_blank">Calavera</a> and <a href="http://agaveuptown.com/" target="_blank">Agave</a>: Both of these Mexican joints are in Uptown...Calvaera in the Hive complex, and Agave on the ground floor of the new Kapor Center. I've enjoyed the meals and vibe at both places, though I still think the food quality is just a notch below that of <a href="http://www.nidooakland.com/" target="_blank">Nido's</a>.<br />
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<a href="http://belottirb.com/" target="_blank">Belotti</a>: Located in a smallish location in the middle of Rockridge, I had lunch here one day recently and was simply blown away by the quality of their pasta...it definitely rivals <a href="http://www.dopoadesso.com/dopo/" target="_blank">Dopo</a> for "best pasta in Oakland". Can't wait to go back and try some of their other dishes.<br />
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<a href="http://drinkdrakes.com/visit/dealership/" target="_blank">Drake's Dealership</a>: Okay, so I ragged on all the drinking joints that have been opening up recently, but Drake's is an exception. Really cool location and use of the space, fantastic beer selection and surprisingly good food for a beer garden - I especially enjoy their pizza and ribs. And very kid/dog/family friendly to boot! The only drawback to this place is that it's uber popular and jam packed every night of the week.<br />
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<a href="http://www.delageoakland.com/" target="_blank">Delage</a>: The owner of B-Dama recently opened this sushi/omakase place right next door, and for $65 this is the best 9-course omakase deal around. Their fish is flown in from Japan, and oh...so fresh and tasty. Very happy to see more quality Japanese fare in Oaktown.<br />
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<a href="http://parlouroakland.com/" target="_blank">Parlour</a>: Great neighborhood restaurant serving mostly Italian fare. Very solid pizzas and pastas, though I have to say that their pasta dishes are a tad overpriced compared to other quality Italian places in the area. And oh...their bar makes a terrific house gin and tonic!<br />
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<a href="http://cloveandhoofoakland.com/" target="_blank">Clove and Hoof</a>: This combination restaurant/butcher shop makes THE best sandwiches in the city, even a notch or two higher than Stag's used to make. Nothing but high quality and freshest ingredients, and such attention to detail for a sandwich shop. Make sure you also save some room for their tasty hand cut beef tallow fries, and if you have the time then also enjoy watching them chop up a dead cow :) More recently they've started to serve dinner entrees, but I haven't had the opportunity to try them out yet.<br />
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/hinayakitori/" target="_blank">Hina Yakitori</a>: This cool yakitori joint opened up several months ago and the chefs came from <a href="http://www.ippukuberkeley.com/" target="_blank">Ippuku</a>, one of my favorite places in all the Bay Area. So, as you might expect the quality is on par with that of Ippuku's, though the interior and ambiance don't have that same authentic Japanese feel. However, definitely the place to go if you're not up for the trek into downtown Berkeley and/or want to save a few bucks.<br />
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<a href="http://www.sweetbellydesserts.com/" target="_blank">Sweet Belly</a>: <a href="http://www.bellyuptown.com/" target="_blank">Belly Uptown's</a> dessert spinoff recently took over the space of this incredibly shitty Chinese takeout place which surprisingly lasted for over a decade. Terrific made-to-order mini-donuts in 6 flavors that you can buy by the dozen or half dozen. Also some great soft serve ice cream in several flavors and your choice of toppings. Super delish...Alice and her team have another winner!<br />
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<a href="http://www.itaniramen.com/" target="_blank">Itani Ramen</a>: Oh, how I looked forward to the opening of this place, as it owned by Kyle Itani, co-owner of <a href="http://www.hopscotchoakland.com/" target="_blank">Hopscotch</a> and one of my favorite restaurants in town. However, it's been really hit and miss during the course of my 8 or so visits there. The first few times were very mediocre experiences as the ramen preparation was very inconsistent - sometimes the broth was not hot or flavorful enough, or the noodles were overcooked, or the chasu pork was not sliced correctly. However, my last couple of visits were a lot better, and I'm hoping this is a good sign for them going forward. Definitely can't compare to <a href="http://www.ramenshop.com/" target="_blank">Ramen Shop</a>, but on the other hand it's conveniently located, easy to get into and open late 7 days a week.<br />
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Happy eating!betabobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03907282560949252359noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727010911733679671.post-35274494817845910792014-08-31T19:37:00.000-07:002014-09-02T17:10:16.425-07:00Oaktown Restaurant Update - September 2014Whether you love or hate this "Brooklynization of Oakland" movement that's been going on, as a foodie you've got to acknowledge that it's done nothing but wonders for the Oakland dining scene. New restaurants are still popping up at an incredible clip throughout the city. Over the past few months I've dined at a number of new places that have recently opened and which I wouldn't hesitate to go back to - <a href="http://captainandcorset.com/" target="_blank">Captain & Corset</a>, <a href="http://www.shakewelloakland.com/" target="_blank">Shakewell</a>, <a href="http://www.thedockoakland.com/" target="_blank">The Dock at Linden Street</a>, <a href="http://michelbistro.com/" target="_blank">Michel</a>, <a href="http://www.bellyuptown.com/" target="_blank">Belly Uptown</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/aburayafriedchicken" target="_blank">Abura-Ya</a>, <a href="http://www.bissapbaobaboakland.com/" target="_blank">Bissap Baobab</a> and <a href="http://libafalafel.com/" target="_blank">Liba Falafel</a> are amongst the newbies and are all excellent.<br />
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I guess it's also time to update my "Top 10" Oakland restaurant list again, though it's getting really hard with the proliferation of all these new great places. I've adjusted my list a bit to include more balance in terms of food variety as well as price points. So, without further ado, here they are in alphabetical order:<br />
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<h3>
<u><a href="http://bsidebbq.com/" target="_blank">B-Side BBQ</a></u></h3>
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Still the best BBQ joint in the city, and by a long shot. They recently tweaked their dinner menu a bit to allow you to order a two-way combo...which is fantastic because I love both the St. Louis ribs and the brisket. They also now include a side with your dinner entree, and only charge a couple of bucks more than they used to...so it's even a better deal now. For awhile they stopped serving lunch, which was really a bummer, but I'm pleased to report that they resumed lunch service a couple of months ago.<br />
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<h3>
<u><a href="http://commisrestaurant.com/" target="_blank">Commis</a></u></h3>
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<a href="https://twitter.com/GhostRidingOAK" target="_blank">James Syabout's</a> flagship is still worthy of its Michelin Star, and it's the only restaurant in the entire East Bay to be awarded one (Chez Panisse lost theirs a few years ago). Though the price of the prix fix menu has continued to crawl up I still think it's a relative bargain given the quality and preparation being put into each meal. When booking a reservation I would highly recommend requesting seats at the Chef's Counter, so you can watch the artisans at work. The wine pairing at ~$55 is also a bargain in my opinion.<br />
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<h3>
<u><a href="http://www.thedockoakland.com/" target="_blank">The Dock at Linden Street</a></u></h3>
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Syabout's latest has fast become one of my favorites. The place is split up into two halves; the main restaurant and the beer garden, which has its own hours and serves a few snacks and desserts from the restaurant menu in addition to the wide variety of beer selections...many of which are from the <a href="http://www.lindenbeer.com/" target="_blank">Linden Street Brewery</a> right next door. The food menu mainly consists of small plates meant to be shared, and can best be described as upscale bar food with an Asian twist. Gorgeous restaurant and in a very cool West Oakland location with plenty of free parking onsite. And oh, you must order one of the sundaes for dessert!<br />
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<h3>
<u><a href="http://www.dopoadesso.com/dopo/" target="_blank">Dopo</a></u></h3>
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A fair number of Italian restaurants have opened in Oaktown during the past couple of years, but Dopo continues to be the king when it comes to pizza and pasta. Their thin pizza crust is still consistently the best of the bunch, and their pastas are also expertly prepared and never overcooked. I've heard of some service issues there from a couple of my friends, but never a complaint about the food quality. They also take a limited number of reservations now, which is great because the waits can be on the long-ish side there.<br />
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<h3>
<u><a href="http://www.duendeoakland.com/" target="_blank">Duende</a></u></h3>
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Into its second year now, Paul Canalis' beautifully designed restaurant is still firing on all cylinders. The arroz negro paella is still one of my favorite dishes anywhere, as is the steak. Their menu changes constantly, and one of my current favorites is the lamb and lobster sausage...delicious! And in addition to their live music they're now starting to show art house films, free of charge. Their Bodega is also a cool place to hangout during mornings or on weekends for some coffee, pastries or an ice cream sandwich made from <a href="http://www.ici-icecream.com/" target="_blank">Ici</a> in Berkeley - owned by Paul's wife.<br />
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<h3>
<u><a href="http://hopscotchoakland.com/" target="_blank">Hopscotch</a></u></h3>
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I was there the day they first opened, there again on their first anniversary, and again on their second anniversary...that's how much I love this place. Still going very strong, so much so that it's getting pretty hard to get a seat in the place without booking well in advance. To keep up with the demand they've rented out the space two doors away which they typically use for larger groups. The fried chicken continues to be amongst the best anywhere, and lately I've been enjoying some of their brunch specialties such as the Soy Braised Pork Belly Benedict...very yummy indeed! And for those of you who are whiskey lovers, Jenny has curated a most impressive collection of Japanese whiskeys in their bar.<br />
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<h3>
<u><a href="http://www.missolliesoakland.com/" target="_blank">Miss Ollie's</a></u></h3>
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Speaking of fried chicken, I would say that Miss Ollie's is in a tie with Hopscotch for the best fried chicken dish in Oakland, though the preparations are totally different. For about $18 you get 4 pieces of creole-style fried chicken, plus a bowl of potato salad and some greens...quite the bargain! The staff at Miss Ollies is always friendly and helpful, and you definitely must remember to order the Creole doughnuts for dessert.<br />
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<h3>
<u><a href="http://www.nidooakland.com/" target="_blank">Nido</a></u></h3>
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It took me three visits to finally warm up to this place, but I have to say now that this is the finest Mexican restaurant in Oakland. The best dishes there are ones that are non-traditional, with the pork Chuleta perhaps being the best pork chop I've had anywhere. They serve some great margaritas as well, with my favorite being the spicy Picosa. Believe it or not, their kitchen does not have a refrigerator...so you know everything they serve is going to be fresh.<br />
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<h3>
<u><a href="http://www.osmanthusrestaurant.com/" target="_blank">Osmanthus</a></u></h3>
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Growing up Asian, I'm always a bit suspicious of Asian restaurants touted as "fusion" or being run by non-Asians. However, after a couple of friends recommended this place I decided to try it for myself, and boy I'm really glad I did. Located in the old Nan-Yang location in Rockridge, Osmanthus serves up modern renditions of classic dishes across all of Asia. Among the dishes I've tried are the tea leaf salad, trout fried rice, kabocha short ribs, brussel sprouts and the pork belly...all are highly recommended. The menus somewhat resembles that of the uber-popular Burma Superstar, but their preparations are a bit more refined in my opinion.<br />
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<h3>
<u><a href="http://www.ramenshop.com/" target="_blank">Ramen Shop</a></u></h3>
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I resisted going to this place for the first couple of months after it opened, because I couldn't understand how anyone could get away with selling $17 bowls of ramen. But when I finally gave in and tried it I became a total convert and now it's one of my main "go to" places...despite their no reservation policy. If you're looking for traditional Japanese ramen you might be disappointed, but if you've wondered what it would be like if Chez Panisse alum were to make ramen...well, that's exactly what you get here. In addition to three ramen choices per day they also serve a number of tasty side dishes, including some type of fried rice which I usually get as an appetizer. And for dessert the black sesame ice cream sandwich is the bomb!<br />
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And now a few comments about some the restaurants that dropped out of the Top 10, as well as a few other notables that didn't quite make it:<br />
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<a href="http://www.floraoakland.com/" target="_blank">Flora</a>: Kind of pains me not to include them, as they were the first ones to embrace Uptown and set the stage for what that area has turned out to be. But their food is a lot more hit-and-miss these days, plus they continue to suffer from constant staff turnover...I keep seeing all their good bartenders and waiters showing up at some of the other restaurants listed here. I'm still a fan, though, and I think their burger is still one of the best in town...as is their bar.<br />
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<u><a href="http://www.pizzaiolooakland.com/" target="_blank">Pizzaiolo</a></u>, <u><a href="http://bootandshoeservice.com/" target="_blank">Boot & Shoe Service</a></u> and <u><a href="http://penroseoakland.com/" target="_blank">Penrose</a></u>: All three of Charlie Hallowell's restaurants are excellent and come close to making the list, and Penrose has one of the coolest interior designs of any Oakland restaurant. But I do find that the pizzas at Pizzaiolo and especially at Boot & Shoe to be inconsistent in terms of the all important "crispy crust" factor. And one thing that all three of these restaurants share - very high interior noise levels.<br />
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<u><a href="http://www.havenoakland.com/" target="_blank">Haven</a></u>: Daniel Patterson's Jack London joint has unfortunately gone downhill. I was so in love with this place when it first opened, when Kim Alter was at the helm in the kitchen. But after she left in an effort to salvage Patterson's other restaurant Plum the food quality suffered, and the service issues which I had previously overlooked became a lot more bothersome to me as a result. And speaking of Plum, though I was pleased with the improvements when Alter took over their kitchen, that proved to be short lived as the restaurant was recently rebranded as <u><a href="http://umeoakland.com/" target="_blank">Ume</a></u> and Alter was gone as well. Now both of Patterson's Oakland restaurants are merely okay, but definitely not great.<br />
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<u><a href="http://www.hawkerfare.com/" target="_blank">Hawker Fare</a></u> and <u><a href="http://boxandbells.com/" target="_blank">Box & Bells</a></u>: Either of these can justify being on my Top 10, but hey, we can't have all four of Syabout's restaurants on the list, can we? Hawker Fare recently changed up their menu for dinner, so now there's quite a selection of new and tasty items to try. And Box & Bells is a great addition to Rockridge, taking over the former (and mediocre) Somerset space. The fare there is high-end gastropub, a bit on the "heavy" side but which is fine by me.<br />
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<u><a href="http://www.caminorestaurant.com/" target="_blank">Camino</a></u>: Still very good, though the last couple of times I went there I thought it was just okay. What's always a bit challenging with this place is the fact that they only serve three entrees per day, so you sometimes end up going there just to find out that nothing sounds terribly appealing.<br />
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<u><a href="http://www.cosechacafe.com/" target="_blank">Cosecha</a></u>: This is the best tacqueria in town, which is not surprising since it's another restaurant run by a Chez Panisse alum. I actually boycotted this place for over a year because of some horrific service I received on one occasion, but after finally coming back I was happy to see that the food quality has remained consistently great...I particularly like the shrimp and pork belly tacos.<br />
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<u><a href="https://www.facebook.com/aburayafriedchicken" target="_blank">Abura-Ya</a></u>: This new pop-up in downtown Oakland is housed in a salad bar on 15th St. and serves 6 varieties of the most awesome and tastiest Japanese chicken karaage that you'll find anywhere. And dirt cheap too...4 large pieces for $7; 8 pieces for $12. In addition to the karaage they serve some really tasty salads, including a delicious and creamy wasabi slaw.<br />
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<u><a href="http://www.bellyuptown.com/" target="_blank">Belly Uptown</a></u>: Finally...a takeout place just a stone's throw from my office that serves high quality food. I love, love everything this place serves. The burgers are delicious and sort of Umami Burger-like, and the tacos and burritos have Asian influences in them that work just perfectly. In particular, I'm nuts for the burritos because they use sushi rice which gives them an additional slight chewy texture in the fillings...really well done!betabobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03907282560949252359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727010911733679671.post-1557092275637392612013-06-08T19:09:00.001-07:002013-06-09T16:46:35.305-07:00The Best Restaurants in Oakland - According to MeThis is a departure from my usual tech-oriented writing, but a few of my friends have previously suggested that I write a food blog as I'm always checking out the latest restaurants in Oaktown and have pretty strong opinions about who is or isn't serving quality food. Quite honestly I don't have the time to write such a blog, plus I don't consider myself to be anything close to an expert when it comes to the culinary arts - I just love to eat! However, I do have my favorite hangouts, and so without further ado here is my official "Top Ten Restaurants in Oakland" list. In alphabetical order:<br />
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<h3>
<b><a href="http://bsidebbq.com/" target="_blank">B-Side BBQ</a></b></h3>
<b><br /></b>
If you're looking for quick and cheap BBQ with the meat piled on high then this isn't your place. However, if you're looking for very well prepared fare using quality ingredients and a great atmosphere then you've come to the right BBQ joint. My favorite two dishes are the brisket and the Dark & Stormy St. Louis ribs. The sides are excellent too. I've had their cornbread, mac 'n cheese, spicy coleslaw and potato salad...all were great. Even the toast that comes with the BBQ is done really well...no slices of Wonder Bread here. And finally, how can you not like a place that often shows Blazing Saddles on their big screens?<br />
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<h3>
<b><a href="http://www.caminorestaurant.com/" target="_blank">Camino</a></b> </h3>
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Run by an ex-alum of Chez Panisse (as are a number of restaurants here) I guess it's no surprise that I consider this place to be the closest thing to Chez Panisse without having to actually go there. Some people might be put off by their "community" seating arrangement, but it doesn't bother me at all. The reason I don't come here more often, though, is because their menu changes daily, you don't know about it until they post it to their website they day of, and they only serve three entrees per day - so it's always a bit of a gamble. On the plus side they'll serve you boatloads of Acme's "Pain de Mie" rolls, which I am terribly addicted to. Though I haven't eaten here a lot, the times that I have I've walked away thoroughly satisfied...I think the last time here I had some terrific roasted crab.<br />
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<h3>
<a href="http://www.commisrestaurant.com/" target="_blank">Commis</a></h3>
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Quite simply, the best fine dining in the East Bay. James Syhabout's first restaurant is a winner and has deservedly earned its Michelin Star. The attention to preparation and detail is amazing in this place. In fact, when you're in there it sometimes feels a bit eerie because the kitchen is right in the middle of the restaurant but you never hear a peep from any of the chefs because they're all meticulously working on the food preparation/presentation. Their multi-course fixed-price menu changes frequently, but definitely count on a couple of the courses bordering on molecular gastronomy...Mr. Syhabout evidently worked a stint at the famed <a href="http://www.elbulli.com/" target="_blank">elBulli</a> restaurant in Spain. The food here isn't cheap and in fact is probably the most expensive restaurant on this list, but after eating here I've always come walking away thinking it was a bargain.<br />
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<h3>
<a href="http://www.dopoadesso.com/dopo/" target="_blank">Dopo</a></h3>
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I've eaten at every decent Italian joint in the city, but Dopo stands out for me as having the best pasta and thin crust pizza of the bunch. Their menu changes constantly, but when they offer a squid ink pasta I almost aways get that. They serve lasagne pretty regularly and that is excellent as well. Their calzones are also a great alternative if you're not quite in a pizza mood. I really like that the crust on their pizzas/calzones have that perfect amount of crispness without getting burnt. If there are any downsides it's that the place is pretty noisy, I sometimes feel cramped in there, and their pasta portions are a bit on the small-ish side.<br />
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<h3>
<a href="http://duendeoakland.com/" target="_blank">Duende</a></h3>
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This is the hot new kid on the block, and I'm currently addicted to it. Paul Canales of Oliveto fame recently opened up this place, and not only is the food terrific but the space itself is stunning and ambitious - they spent what looks like a small fortune gutting it out and creating a sense of openness throughout. The restaurant is broken up into several sections: the main restaurant; the central bar area with shared table seating; the all day "Bodega" where among things they offer coffee, dessert, Spanish wine selections and olive oil; and an upstairs lounge where they occasionally host live music. The food is Spanish tapas style and meant to be shared. My favorite dishes include the squid ink seafood paella, the prime rib steak, and the stuffed peppers with lamb. <br />
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<h3>
<a href="http://www.floraoakland.com/" target="_blank">Flora</a></h3>
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Whether or not you like this place, you have to give props to Flora for being a groundbreaker in Uptown, being the first ones of their stature to take a huge gamble on the neighborhood. And it's paid off handsomely for them, as they've continued to be one of the most popular restaurants in the city. They've gone through several chef changes over the years, but I think their most recent one has made them as good as they've ever been. About half the time I go here I sit at the bar and eat their burger, which for my money is the best burger in town. Their menu changes constantly and I've rarely been disappointed with any of their meat and seafood dishes. And oh, their caramel pudding, which they've had since the very beginning, is simply to die for. Great art deco look and feel too, and the best bar and cocktails in town. They also recently opened up their sister bar Fauna right next door.<br />
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<h3>
<a href="http://www.havenoakland.com/" target="_blank">Haven</a></h3>
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Daniel Patterson's second restaurant in Oakland (Plum being the other) is easily their best. The location is a bit hard to find for a first-timer, as it's tucked away in an area of Jack London Square that isn't obvious as being a retail space. But once you go inside, the modern industrial look is great, and I think the best seating location is right at the bar overlooking the kitchen. Kim Alter is the executive chef here, and I guess the best way to describe her style of cooking is "bold and aggressive", with dishes like bone marrow and shepherd's pie cooked with pig's blood often on their menu. Some folks think her "bold" style results in dishes being overly salty and/or buttery...but I'm a sucker for all that.<br />
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<h3>
<a href="http://www.hawkerfare.com/" target="_blank">Hawker Fare</a></h3>
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James Syhabout's second restaurant is one that I go to quite often for lunch or a casual dinner. They primarily serve Thai rice bowls mixed with various meats and veggies...my favorites are the poached chicken, pork belly and veggie curry. You would think that Asian restaurants could not possibly screw up making something as simple as steamed rice, but the reality is that many unfortunately do. Hawker Fare makes their rice just about as perfect as can be, and they also do a great job with it in their congee dish - just the perfect texture and consistency. Recently they expanded their menu to include more small bites, mainly meat skewers done Izakaya style...they are delicious. And from what I've heard they plan to offer even more dishes in the not too distant future. Oh, and they've got a cool assortment of old school music posters featuring local acts on their wall, and they often have a lot of soul/R&B classics that I love playing in the background.<br />
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<h3>
<a href="http://hopscotchoakland.com/" target="_blank">Hopscotch</a></h3>
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I have a special fondness for this place because they are super close to my office, I was there for dinner the first night they opened and had a fabulous meal, and Jenny and team are always super nice and accommodating...in fact we had our company holiday party there last year and had a blast. The restaurant looks like a 50's diner which is cool in and of itself, and perhaps the best way to describe the cuisine is "diner food with a Japanese twist". Their signature dish is the fried chicken, marinated in a soy/mustard sauce and perfectly executed. Other menu items come and go; I recently had an oxtail stew which was just out of this world. They also open for lunch and serve a fantastic Tonkatsu sandwich, along with their First Base Burger which you can order with a slice of beef tongue on top - awesome! Within their first year of operation they received a 3-star Michael Bauer review and also made the Chronicle 100...very impressive! Great bar too, and one of the few that serve Asahi Super Dry on tap.<br />
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<h3>
<a href="http://www.pizzaiolooakland.com/" target="_blank">Pizzaiolo</a></h3>
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This place been a Temescal mainstay for a decade now, and it's still going strong. Excellent pasta and other main dishes, and their pizzas are fantastic as well...just a hair below Dopo's in my opinion. They also serve homemade toast and Blue Bottle coffee in the mornings...great place to hangout before starting the workday. The vibe at night is pretty hip and so the place does get pretty loud. The restaurant seems to be booked solid all the time, and for whatever reason they've never taken online reservations; otherwise I'd go a lot more. Wassup with that?<br />
<br />
Okay, I just realized that there are a lot more good restaurants in town than just these ten. Here are a <b>few</b> of my other favorites in no particular order:<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.oliveto.com/" target="_blank">Oliveto</a></b>: Been a Rockridge institution forever and it's had its ups and downs, but recently on an upswing again. Great location on top of Market Hall serving upscale Italian fare.<br />
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<b><a href="http://woodtavern.net/" target="_blank">Wood Tavern</a>:</b> I just haven't been here enough to consider it for my Top Ten, as the place is just so damn hard to get a table. I will say that the last time I went they prepared a fabulous steak.<br />
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<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/STAGSLUNCHETTE" target="_blank">Stag's Lunchette</a>:</b> Best sandwich shop in Oakland...period. The grilled cheese and pastrami reuben are menu fixtures and are excellent. And some of their "guest" sandwiches have just knocked my socks off, like the meatloaf and the coca cola braised beef.<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.burmasuperstar.com/" target="_blank">Burma Superstar</a>:</b> Sister restaurant to the SF institution. Pretty much the same menu, but pricier and in a more upscale setting. The Rainbow Salad is always popular, though really not my thing. My favorite dish is their pork belly with pickled mustard greens.<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.oaklandchopbar.com/" target="_blank">Chop Bar</a>:</b> Great place to have brunch on a nice day where you can sit out on their patio area. Very well prepared egg dishes, nice assortment of muffins/pastries, and very friendly service.<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.sidebar-oaktown.com/sidebar-oaktown.com/home.html" target="_blank">Sidebar</a>:</b> Their ribeye steak frites is huge and the best steak bargain in the city...I pretty much get this every time I go there.<br />
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<b><a href="http://trueburgeroakland.com/" target="_blank">TrueBurger</a>:</b> The closest thing to a Shake Shack experience outside of NYC. Really well prepared burgers, and I love the brioche-like buns they use. Great shakes too.<br />
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<b><a href="http://bootandshoeservice.com/" target="_blank">Boot and Shoe Service</a>:</b> Same ownership as Pizzaiolo and same thin crust style pizza. However, the place is even louder than Pizzaiolo (and too hipster) and I find the pizza quality to be less consistent.<br />
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<b><a href="http://missolliesoakland.com/" target="_blank">Miss Ollie's</a>:</b> This place is fast becoming one of my favorites and may be in my Top Ten before too long. Fried chicken is amazing, and other dishes are also excellent. Very reasonable prices too.<br />
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<b><a href="http://rosamundesausagegrill.com/downtown-oakland/" target="_blank">Rosamunde</a>:</b> Recently opened in Old Oakland. Love the variety of sausages; my two favs are the chicken habanero and the Mission Street.<br />
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<br />betabobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03907282560949252359noreply@blogger.com0Oakland, CA, USA37.8043637 -122.271113737.603596200000005 -122.5938372 38.0051312 -121.9483902tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727010911733679671.post-3386971122522427712013-03-31T15:28:00.000-07:002013-03-31T15:28:03.735-07:00Going the Opposite of Cord Cutting - The Tivo Stream<br />
You would think that my being a tech geek/early adopter type means that I would have been one of the first to jump on the "cord cutting" bandwagon and dump my cable subscription. And trust me...the thought of cutting out a $100+ monthly <a href="http://www.comcast.com/" target="_blank">Comcast</a> bill, along with the usually horrible Comcast customer service department, crosses my mind each time I see that charge on my Visa statement. But attractive as that sounds, and despite the fact that I am downloading/streaming more and more of my video content, I can't seem to escape the clutches of my cable subscription. One of the main reasons for this is the obvious one for many us, namely live sports. Until the major networks come up with an equitable solution for cord cutters to access their live content over the internet this may be a huge stumbling block for me and other sports fans. The other reason is simply convenience...having all my video content stored on an easily accessible hard disk still beats picking and choosing content from various sources (<a href="http://www.netflix.com/" target="_blank">Netflix</a>, <a href="http://www.itunes.com/" target="_blank">iTunes</a>, <a href="http://www.hulu.com/" target="_blank">Hulu</a>, etc.) and having to deal with the occasional internet connectivity issue while downloading or streaming. <br />
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Which brings me to <a href="http://www.tivo.com/" target="_blank">Tivo</a>...I've used quite a number of DVRs over the years, and their UI's range from simply horrible (Comcast) to pretty decent (<a href="http://www.directv.com/" target="_blank">DirecTV</a>) to Tivo, which is still the best of the bunch despite not having done much in recent years to advance their technology. The one nice thing about Tivo, though is that it's an open platform, so as a result there are some extremely clever and useful 3rd-party projects such as <a href="http://pytivo.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/PyTivo" target="_blank">PyTivo</a> and <a href="https://code.google.com/p/kmttg/" target="_blank">kmttg</a> that extend the functionality of the platform. I recently decided to upgrade my unit, because believe it or not I watch enough TV that I occasionally run into situations where I need to record more than two shows at once...their new Premiere 4 allows you to record up to <b>four </b>shows concurrently. One of the other reasons I picked up the new unit is because Tivo was offering a bundled deal which includes the <a href="http://www.tivo.com/products/tivo-premiere/index.html" target="_blank">Premiere 4</a>, a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimedia_over_Coax_Alliance" target="_blank">MoCA</a> adapter which basically allows you to attach wired devices to your network via your home's existing cable coax, and their relatively new <a href="http://www.tivo.com/products/tivo-stream/index.html" target="_blank">Tivo Stream</a> mini-device which lets you stream and/or download content from your Tivo box to your <a href="http://www.apple.com/ipad/" target="_blank">iPad</a>. The device itself is small (4"x4") and super simple - just plug in the AC adapter and connect to your home network with an ethernet cable and you're all set to go.<br />
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<img alt="" border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_VvAkGCErXkud-JBX5FV66dF_o6Mu7KKCWvDq4vpM89PPJFugswCotraItm7M75XiMTT81bQr6cuBIaLzU8xmA7S1HgGTm-fbL72PoHWoSy_G1MN1kRyu8mzsLniuUD3RYiNYTX8j_jp0/s200/2013-03-29+19.33.18.jpg" title="Tivo Stream - front view" width="200" /></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigtgLuSUvmcXi2ALwE78sdvCqhDgyPgwfoF83BSpPOfZ7LuYGsSVFSPohAzcc2FYFfhkGwRcYOfhspdO-yGRV_zFvNL1SFnCoVHHSfVu3fGYiYIHy7mTULGjj4Dw4OiUiaO94rtK-xv-xl/s1600/2013-03-29+19.34.21.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="" border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigtgLuSUvmcXi2ALwE78sdvCqhDgyPgwfoF83BSpPOfZ7LuYGsSVFSPohAzcc2FYFfhkGwRcYOfhspdO-yGRV_zFvNL1SFnCoVHHSfVu3fGYiYIHy7mTULGjj4Dw4OiUiaO94rtK-xv-xl/s200/2013-03-29+19.34.21.jpg" title="Tivo Stream - rear view" width="200" /></a><br />
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The Stream allows you to stream content from your Premier that was previously recorded or is currently recording, and it also lets you downloaded content directly to your iPad for offline viewing...both of these functions are performed using the free Tivo iOS app. As you might expect the app looks and feels similar to its TV sibling, so there was zero learning curve involved. One cool feature is that you can "slide" the playback marker to any specific time within the program - something that you can't do with the TV remote. For the most part everything worked pretty flawlessly and as advertised. If you began watching a program on your TV, paused it and later resumed watching it from your iPad, it remembers where you previously left off and picks up from that point...and vice versa. The one annoying bug I found is that if you stream a program that is still being recorded, your streaming gets interrupted when you get to the location where the Tivo was recording as you began your streaming session...you have to jump back out to the "Now Playing" list, select the program again and then it will resume streaming from the point where it left off.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDnxX8WbibXAPbSi_CZuVwP91vLxeFkxNvGID8OZkgBsDI38rbTaAyaD1lzkDLVVhPaW1ExePT1SX2Qc84ho9I9cpv9U_0hQ_tagW0RPiySK-3fdu_-0OUFo1De_7QtSRQYG0brHmUyu1j/s1600/2013-03-30+23.02.04.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDnxX8WbibXAPbSi_CZuVwP91vLxeFkxNvGID8OZkgBsDI38rbTaAyaD1lzkDLVVhPaW1ExePT1SX2Qc84ho9I9cpv9U_0hQ_tagW0RPiySK-3fdu_-0OUFo1De_7QtSRQYG0brHmUyu1j/s320/2013-03-30+23.02.04.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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Will Tivo sell many of these Stream units? Probably not, as it's really a niche product at the moment with a fairly limited audience. First off, it only works with the iPad, so if you're thinking about using it to stream to your desktop/laptop computer or Android device you're basically SOL. Secondly, the streaming function only works within your internal home network, i.e. you can't stream over the internet...which is really a shame because if it did this then I would no longer have a need for a <a href="http://www.slingbox.com/" target="_blank">Slingbox</a>. And lastly, it obviously only works with Tivo and specifically with later modeled Tivo's...and your Tivo needs to be ethernet or MOCA connected to your home network to boot. However, if you can deal with these limitations then the Stream is a nice add on and essentially turns your iPad into an additional (and portable) home television.betabobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03907282560949252359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727010911733679671.post-83479861272484138422012-12-30T21:26:00.000-08:002012-12-30T21:35:16.756-08:00Bluetooth Finally Comes of Age - The Jawbone Big JamboxWell, it's almost the end of the year and I have to say it's been a pretty ho hum one in terms of tech gadgetry...why else would I be talking about something so mundane as Bluetooth! But seriously, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth" target="_blank">Bluetooth technology</a> has come along quite a way since it was introduced over a decade ago. Back then the technology was so flaky - slow speeds, compatibility issues, connection problems, etc...and this seemed to continue on for a number of years. Did anyone back then ever get Bluetooth to work on a Windows machine? I bet not! It was only during the past 3 or 4 years that things got progressively better, probably due to a combination of evolving/maturing Bluetooth standards along with the proliferation of Bluetooth headsets and "hands free" automobile products that brought the technology to the mainstream. Nowadays Bluetooth seems to be pretty robust and I can't recall the last time I had issues pairing a device. To paraphrase the late Steve Jobs, "it just works"...finally!<br />
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A great example of the above is the latest gadget I purchased, the <a href="https://jawbone.com/speakers/bigjambox/overview" target="_blank">Jawbone Big Jambox</a> wireless Bluetooth speaker. Talk about a dead simple setup procedure - the first time you turn the thing on it smartly goes into pairing mode automatically and has voice/sound prompts to guide you through the process. The speaker can store a total of 8 paired devices, and 2 of them can be simultaneously connected to it. In addition, it also comes with a built-in microphone so that you can use it as a wireless speakerphone. So, for example, if you're streaming your favorite tunes from your iPad to the Jambox and your phone happens to ring, the Jambox will recognize this and pause your music, announce the incoming call (w/ caller id even), and when you pick up the call it immediately turns itself into a full-duplex speakerphone with amazingly good call quality. Audio quality is generally very good for a speaker of this size - as long as you keep that in perspective you should be fine. The device's software can be updated through the Jawbone website, and there are even some supplemental apps (e.g. voice dialers) that you can download to the device as well as a plethora of optional audio "voices" in case the default one doesn't suit your taste.<br />
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The versatility and simplicity of the Jambox makes it a better choice for many audio enthusiasts over the more elegant (and non-Bluetooth) wireless solutions offered by <a href="http://www.sonos.com/" target="_blank">Sonos</a>. Don't get me wrong, though...Sonos products are in a league of their own in terms of versatility and handling complex, multi-room environments. But they can also be a bit finicky in terms of setup and maintenance...at least that's been my experience. <br />
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The Jambox is also quite stylish-looking too; don't you agree?<br />
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<br />betabobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03907282560949252359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727010911733679671.post-34633309499806387282012-09-11T22:34:00.000-07:002012-09-11T22:34:02.496-07:00Quick Thoughts on Tyler Hamilton's BookI just got done reading <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Secret-Race-Cover-ups-ebook/dp/B008WOUJQG/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1347426352&sr=1-1&keywords=the+secret+race" target="_blank">Tyler Hamilton's book</a>, and all I can say is "Wow". I know that his credibility may be called into question given some of the lies he's told over the years, but the level of detail and specificity described in the book makes it hard for me to believe that he's saying anything other than the truth. And I've definitely come away from it feeling stronger than ever that Lance was been doped up all these years. A few noteworthy takeaways:<br />
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<li>I was amazed at all the planning and precision of the doping programs by the top teams and how everything was so carefully timed and executed.</li>
<li>It was interesting to read about how all the riders had so much information about the doping methods used by their rivals, and how they all knew who was/wasn't doped up.</li>
<li>Lance was an unbelievable control freak and bullied everyone who got in his way. He was even more of an SOB than I had previously imagined.</li>
<li>Illegal practices or not, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michele_Ferrari" target="_blank">Michele Ferrari</a> was a genius scientist/doctor that you had to grudgingly admire for his knowledge of the human physiology, training methods, diet, and of course performance-enhancing drugs. I loved the story about Lance getting worried about Pantani's solo breakaway during a Tour stage, and getting Bruyneel to call Ferrari on the phone to run some quick calculations to confirm that Pantani would eventually blow...which he did.</li>
<li>Recreational riders are going to start using the term <i>"not normal" </i>on their weekend club rides from now on.</li>
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betabobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03907282560949252359noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727010911733679671.post-29393034533931130962012-08-26T18:18:00.000-07:002012-08-26T18:18:48.994-07:00Nexus 7 - The Best Android Device AvailableLet me just start out by saying that the Nexus 7 is unquestionably the best Android device available today! It's lightning fast, noticeably faster than any mobile device I've used...and I've used a bunch of them. I don't know if it's due to the quad-core processor or the smoothness of the Jelly Bean OS...probably a combination of both. Applications download/install several times faster than on other devices, and when you go into 3D mode on Google Maps it's absolutely amazing how quickly all the building structures take shape. I bought the device intending to hand it to one of our developers in order to test our Android app, but I've held onto to it for over a week now and I'm not sure I'm going to relinquish it...sorry David!<br />
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There are a number of other reasons to like the Nexus 7. The build quality is excellent, as is the screen resolution. For lots of people the form factor of a 7-inch device is advantageous to the 10-inch iPad because of portability. One of the nice things about its size is that I can store the device in the glove compartment or in the center console of my car, something I absolutely can't do with the iPad. The smaller/lighter form factor will also be preferred by a lot of people who read books, though I suspect magazine readers may not think the same. If you rely heavily on Gmail, Maps and other Google apps like I do then there is no comparison between the way they run on the Nexus vs. the iPad...the latter seems stuck in the stone ages. Battery life is also outstanding, on par or maybe slightly better than the iPad. And perhaps its biggest advantage is the price...at $199 it's priced the same as the <a href="http://thebetabobblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/new-kindle-is-good-but-not-quite-on.html" target="_blank">mediocre Kindle Fire</a> and and blows it away in just about every respect. And that price is less than half the cost of the entry-level iPad.<br />
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Quite a bit has been written recently about Android 4.1, aka Jelly Bean, particularly the sheer speed and smoothness of the OS. In addition to that Google is really trying to play up its Play Store (no pun intended) as well as the integration with all of its cloud-based services. For example, after going through the setup process my homepage shows a collage of content I have stored in Google:<br />
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Perhaps the coolest Jelly Bean feature is Google Now, which is best described as an intelligent extension to the notification system. Google Now will automatically display "cards" based on some of your common activities. For example, I checked the score for a recent Giants game on the device, and ever since then it's been display cards for each of the Giants games, keeping me up to date on the scores. Ditto for the weather. And it even goes beyond that, bordering on creepy. The other day I was reading an article on TechCrunch written by a guest author who is employed by one of the local VC's. After finishing the article I decided to hop onto the VC's website to check out the author's bio...this was done on my <i>laptop</i>. A few minutes later I picked up the Nexus and noticed that a new notification had popped up...it was driving directions and estimated drive time from my home to the VC's office. As I stated...a bit creepy, but useful nonetheless.</div>
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So the big question is...will I replace my trusty iPad with the Nexus 7? It's a really, really close call...but probably not. I do like the convenience of having 4G connectivity when I need it, and unfortunately the Nexus only supports wifi. And though I love the whole concept behind Google Now, I also think that the technology is something I'd rather have on my smartphone than on my tablet device...now, if Verizon can get off their butts and deliver Jelly Bean to my <a href="http://thebetabobblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/verizon-and-galaxy-nexus-two-worthwhile.html" target="_blank">Galaxy Nexus</a> I'd be set! I also think the iPad still gets the nod as the superior reading device, especially for reading magazines/newspapers in landscape mode. In fact, some of the Android reading apps don't even support landscape mode on the Nexus, probably due to the fact that at 7 inches the screen isn't conducive to a quality reading experience in landscape. But at $199, it's easily the best value out there and is worth serious consideration for anyone needing to buy a tablet...regardless of the price point.</div>
betabobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03907282560949252359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727010911733679671.post-45845972524392296972012-06-15T18:01:00.000-07:002012-06-15T21:56:27.740-07:00Apple TV - Not Just for the HomeAt <a href="http://www.outbid.com/" target="_blank">my company</a> one of the most important meetings we have is our weekly development sprint review and planning session. For those of you unfamiliar with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development" target="_blank">Agile development methodology</a> this is where the development team showcases what they've been working on during the past week, and it's also where we plan and prioritize the upcoming week's set of <i>stories</i>, or to-do list. Anyway, one of the biggest challenges we've faced is that the meetings tend to run long, and one of the main contributors to this is the fact that during the meeting anywhere from 4-8 people are projecting their laptops onto our conference room TV in order to display something to the entire audience. With one fairly short VGA cable to share amongst all of us, we not only had to play musical chairs within the conference room anytime someone new had something to present, but whoever was presenting also needed to make sure their display settings were correct and that they were projecting the right desktop window onto the TV. All told I would estimate that we wasted 15 minutes per meeting doing all this logistical juggling, and when you multiply that by about a dozen participants that's a total of 3 hours of lost productivity for the team.<br />
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Luckily we recently moved into a <a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?q=1625+clay+st,+oakland,+ca+94612&hl=en&ll=37.807014,-122.272521&spn=0.001651,0.00254&sll=37.806738,-122.272695&layer=c&cbp=13,252.64,,0,-28.51&cbll=37.80718,-122.272416&hnear=1625+Clay+St,+Oakland,+California+94612&t=m&panoid=reyYHbG7y8qIU3WY6AfFlA&z=19" target="_blank">new office space</a>, and in this space we had the luxury of setting up our new conference room from scratch. We decided from the get go that we were going to purchase one of those conference tables where all the wiring is accessible from the center of the table, so we didn't have to hassle with wires strewn all over the table and tripping on them as we walk in and out of the conference room. But at the last minute I decided we could go even one better...enter Apple TV.<br />
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As most people know, <a href="http://www.apple.com/appletv/" target="_blank">Apple TV</a> is a cool little device that allows you to stream video (and/or audio) to your TV. The video streams could be from iTunes purchases, YouTube, Netflix, and a host of other available content sources. However, there is also a very cool and somewhat under promoted feature in Apple TV called Airplay. What Airplay allows you to do is a couple of things. First off, you can use <a href="http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4437" target="_blank">Airplay Streaming</a> to wirelessly stream multimedia content from your iPhone, iPad or iTunes-enabled computer directly to your TV via Apple TV. When you're in the media player you will automatically see a new control pop-up on the screen, and when pressed it enables you to select which available Apple TV device to stream through. It works wonderfully, and you can stream movies and TV shows in all of its high-def and multi-channel audio glory. But in addition to this the Apple TV also supports a feature known as <a href="http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5209" target="_blank">Airplay Mirroring</a>. What Airplay Mirroring allows you to do is to stream <i>any </i>content to your TV via a supported device. Right now the only supported devices are the iPhone 4S and the iPad 2 (or later). However, Apple is about a month away from releasing Mountain Lion, the next version of Mac OS X, and that version will support Airplay Mirroring as well. Given the fact that most everyone in our company is on a Mac, once Mountain Lion is out we'd all be able to stream anything from our laptops onto the big screen.<br />
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But there's no reason to even wait for Mountain Lion, because there are already 3rd-party solutions to enable Airplay Mirroring from Mac OS and even Windows clients today. We're currently using one called <a href="http://www.airparrot.com/" target="_blank">Airparrot</a>, and at $6 per license (when purchased in blocks of 5) it's really a no-brainer. It allows you to either mirror or extend your desktop to the TV, lets you enable/disable audio streaming on-the-fly, and even provides an option for only displaying a selected application vs. your entire desktop.<br />
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All of our employees are now using Airplay to wirelessly stream their laptop screens during group meetings, and I have to say the productivity gains are immediately evident and the three Apple TV's we purchased have paid for themselves multiple times already. <br />
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In case you're wondering what our setup looks like here's a picture of the wall in our main conference room with dual 52" monitors. My iPad is being streamed on the left screen; my Macbook Pro on the right.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPG9mP7Dgd_9yxtwQD9FySsN1js0e6oZ32S_b3XINP0VoVHKliiSn23zb8pMwhVkGjK1ztt_HTEYCn4A8ejv-zNDLqrySnLH6ZJlBc8zrhiGVar0-p6mQ3AzB4vC8eUk0lAKLdTZPblBjg/s1600/2012-06-15+17.43.41.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPG9mP7Dgd_9yxtwQD9FySsN1js0e6oZ32S_b3XINP0VoVHKliiSn23zb8pMwhVkGjK1ztt_HTEYCn4A8ejv-zNDLqrySnLH6ZJlBc8zrhiGVar0-p6mQ3AzB4vC8eUk0lAKLdTZPblBjg/s400/2012-06-15+17.43.41.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Here's a pic of one of the Apple TV's, which we conveniently hide behind the TV screen:<br />
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And of course, since the Apple TV is still a consumer device there's always a little time for fun as well:<br />
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<br />betabobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03907282560949252359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727010911733679671.post-19559852252264014872012-05-29T07:04:00.000-07:002012-05-29T07:04:21.418-07:00Fitbit Aria Wi-Fi Scale - the Perfect OCD GiftOkay, so I'm probably one of the few guys around that gets overly obsessed with his weight. Not for any vanity-related reasons, mind you, but because of my fanatical obsession with cycling and the "weight weenie" aspect of wanting myself and <a href="http://thebetabobblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/bike-tech-gadgets-my-new-parlee-z5-sli.html" target="_blank">my bike</a> to be as light as possible. So, when I first heard about the new <a href="http://www.fitbit.com/product/aria" target="_blank">Fitbit Aria</a> wi-fi scale I just couldn't resist picking one up. I've been following the goings on at Fitbit for awhile now, and their cool <a href="http://www.fitbit.com/product" target="_blank">Ultra</a> device has become pretty popular with people who want to track all their physical activities, calorie consumption, and sleep patterns. I never bothered with the Ultra since I already use a <a href="https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=160&pID=36728" target="_blank">Garmin 500</a> to track all my cycling activities, but when I heard about the Aria I just knew I had to have it. What's cool about it is that not only does it show you your weight, but it also displays/records your body fat percentage and uploads all of the recorded data to the internet, which you can view by going to the Fitbit website or through their free iOS/Android applications. The scale can provide this data for up to 8 people in your household, and by default it makes each person's data completely private. You can weigh yourself as many times as you like throughout the day, and each time it will add the latest update to your online profile. This is great, because sometimes it's useful to record your weight at the beginning or end of each day, or before/after working out.<br />
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My Aria was waiting for me when I returned from a recent East Coast conference, and for the most part setting up the device was a breeze. I loved the packaging it came in, and dare I say that opening up the box was somewhat akin to opening up one for an Apple product...nice little touches and very pleasing to the eye. As soon as the box is opened there are specific instructions for going to the Fitbit website to download a setup program. I did this, and here's where I encountered a bit of a problem. Turns out that the setup program requires that your machine be connected to the internet via a wireless network - more on this requirement in a second. Anyway, after unplugging my ethernet cable I tried running the setup program several times, but each time it kept telling me that I was not using wireless. I almost decided to give up for the night, but just for fun I rebooted my machine, reran the setup program, and whoa-la...it worked this time! Once the setup program runs it asks you to create a Fitbit account if you don't already have one, and then it "finds" your Aria on the wireless network, asks a couple of basic questions, and automatically configures the device. I was wondering how this was going to work, because the Aria has no buttons to speak of and so I was curious as to how you would go about configuring it to connect to your wireless network. But what I <i>believe</i><b> </b>the setup program is doing is copying the wireless network settings from your computer and then using those settings within the Aria to <i>spoof</i><b style="font-style: italic;"> </b>the identify of your computer...very clever indeed! And the fact that the Mac address for the Aria doesn't show up as a registered device anywhere on my wireless router seems to support this theory.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu34ZSZ4IUWg9KodkOfi-V5fh_UJ3O45ZWKMAnYGuCXJsMYRWakVFrvha4fanpX15CHHiVEieAQE98T7QkfwH3A51x6KLFl_aeeD2hVo6sKMYvksDMaDD2LBMO_i0cAEVaR-TkJPKSuKzl/s1600/2012-05-26+18.56.54.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu34ZSZ4IUWg9KodkOfi-V5fh_UJ3O45ZWKMAnYGuCXJsMYRWakVFrvha4fanpX15CHHiVEieAQE98T7QkfwH3A51x6KLFl_aeeD2hVo6sKMYvksDMaDD2LBMO_i0cAEVaR-TkJPKSuKzl/s400/2012-05-26+18.56.54.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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The Aria comes in a black or white finish, with a clear Gorilla Glass-like overlay that you step on. The LED display is bright and readable, and overall the unit is very stylish and modern. After using it for a few days I can safely say the unit works exactly as advertised and performs flawlessly. The only bummer that it's constantly reminding me of how surprisingly high my body fat percentage is!betabobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03907282560949252359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727010911733679671.post-4720092981478787252012-03-17T22:33:00.001-07:002012-03-17T22:33:39.042-07:00Verizon and the Galaxy Nexus - Two Worthwhile UpgradesBeing the Android fanboy that I am, I had my eyes on the latest "pure Android" device, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy_nexus" target="_blank">Galaxy Nexus</a>, ever since it was launched a few months ago. The device comes pre-loaded with the latest and greatest Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) version of Android, with lots of new bells and whistles and a much improved user interface. But alas, it was only available on Verizon and I had been a dedicated (and mostly satisfied) T-Mobile customer for the past 7 years. In addition to that I felt that this trend towards larger and larger handset screens was not to my liking, and so when I saw that the Galaxy Nexus was sporting a 4.65-inch screen I figured I really didn't want to deal with anything that bulky. So, given these two issues I decided I would just stand pat for awhile and see how things were going to play out. And as it turned out, Google did start rolling out ICS to existing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexus_S" target="_blank">Nexus S</a> users such as myself, and since the Nexus S is no slouch of a device I figured I would just hold onto it for awhile and wait for the ICS update. And sure enough, back in December I was able to download and install ICS without a hitch, so I thought I was golden.<br />
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Well, I quickly found out that ICS on the Nexus S had a <a href="http://thebetabobblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/my-ice-cream-sandwich-is-quickly.html" target="_blank">couple of major issues</a>, notably excessive battery drain and a general sluggishness with most applications. In fact, shortly after Google started deploying ICS to Nexus S owners they abruptly halted the deployment, probably because everyone was having similar problems to mine. It was around this time that I also started losing my patience with T-Mobile, as there were just too many places I was going that had little to no reception, and even in the places where there was reception it was often the case that all I could get was 2G....WTF, that just doesn't cut it in today's world. <br />
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I waited and waited for Google to address the ICS issues, but no dice. And then I heard about this <a href="http://wireless.amazon.com/dp/B0061R2A1S" target="_blank">great deal</a> that Amazon had for the Galaxy Nexus, just $99! So, I immediately jumped on the deal, had my phone in a couple of days (with number ported) and I was in business. And boy, I can't believe I didn't switch to Verizon sooner. I'm getting spectacular 4G coverage in most places....check out this speedtest report which I ran near my office:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4UpkC_5V7ugyRaS2FUT62PupTUTqWhFwTSz-J7dOvW2_f2PFrxY4Q14XLaAyBlbc5V8YA6GyQN2erohVXWpfUlNk6kU6-pJkVDkPVjF4uBEtytvqtiNIxt5gNZDe99EsHDaq_om1dkwHC/s1600/Screenshot_2012-03-01-09-44-48.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4UpkC_5V7ugyRaS2FUT62PupTUTqWhFwTSz-J7dOvW2_f2PFrxY4Q14XLaAyBlbc5V8YA6GyQN2erohVXWpfUlNk6kU6-pJkVDkPVjF4uBEtytvqtiNIxt5gNZDe99EsHDaq_om1dkwHC/s400/Screenshot_2012-03-01-09-44-48.png" width="225" /></a></div>
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ICS on the Galaxy Nexus doesn't seem to have any of the battery issues I experienced with the Nexus S either. I consider myself to be a pretty heavy smartphone user, but despite that I am able to go nearly a full day with the device off of a single charge; noticeably better than my Nexus S even before the ICS upgrade. And the dual-core processor in the Galaxy is so damn fast....it's night and day compared to any other phone I've used in terms of the speediness of apps. This, along with Verizon's great coverage and speedy 4G network have me in smartphone heaven at the moment. Do I still think the phone is too big? Yeah, it would be perfect if the screen was closer to 4-inches even...but I'll overlook this given all of the phone's other advantages.<br />
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Oh, but now it's time to play with my new "retina display" iPad...so stay tuned!betabobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03907282560949252359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727010911733679671.post-37583492044731179242012-02-05T09:53:00.000-08:002012-02-09T22:54:29.187-08:00Bike + Tech Gadgets = My New Parlee Z5 SLiThose of you that have known me for awhile are aware that two of my personal hobbies/passions are cycling and tech gadgets. Well, a few months back I decided to pull the trigger on a new bike, and after going back and forth on all the available options I finally settled on the recently released <a href="http://www.parleecycles.com/z5sli-overview/" target="_blank">Parlee Z5 SLi</a> frame, married with Shimano Dura-Ace components. And not just <b>any </b>Dura-Ace component group, mind you, but the latest DI2 electronic shifting version of it. That's where the gadgetry comes in, and the resulting combination is oh so sweet.<br />
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The idea of electric shifting is not new, and in fact back in the 90's the French component manufacturer Mavic came out with the Zap electronic shifting system...and sure enough, yours truly was one of the early adopters of it. I will say this...when it worked it worked pretty well, but after a few unfortunate mishaps I gave up on it and went back to a more traditional setup. Then finally, a couple of years ago Shimano announced the new DI2 system, and knowing how good Japanese companies do electronics I just knew that one day I would have to have it. One of the issues with DI2, though (well, other than the expense), is that with all the electrical wiring running around it doesn't make for a very clean look on the bike. So, that's where the Parlee comes in. I've always admired Parlee for their handiwork and they were always near the top of my list for my next frame. And I always respected the fact that they only cared about making the best frames possible rather doing anything gimmicky like weird tube shapes or loud paint schemes. So when the Z5 SLi came out I just knew I had to have it. The "SL" stands for "super light", and at 820 grams it is indeed one of the lightest frames in the world. And the "i" in SLi stands for "internal routing", which means the frame is pre-drilled to allow the electrical wires to run inside of the frame vs. routing them externally and looking a tad ugly. The result is simply awesome!<br />
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I think pictures are worth a thousand words here, so let the cameras roll. First up, here is the bare frame and fork, just after I unboxed it at my bike shop. See the hole close to where the down tube meets the heat tube? That's for the internal wiring:<br />
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I debated quite awhile between going with a traditional gloss finish vs. the matte finish that is very popular today. I'm glad I went with matte, as in addition to looking great it has bit of stealthiness to it that I like a lot. And the Parlee guys did a fabulous custom paint job for me with the white racing logos, the stealthy head tube logo and just a hint of pink in a couple of places.<br />
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And just to prove I wasn't lying earlier, here's the frame up on the scale...yup, just .82 kg:<br />
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One of the cooler things I did was to substitute the stock Shimano lithium iron battery with <a href="http://www.calfeedesign.com/" target="_blank">Calfee Design's</a> new version which mounts <b>inside </b>of the seat post. Normally the DI2 battery would need to be mounted somewhere on the frame itself; again, rather ugly. Here's a picture of the seat post (incl. battery) being installed in the frame:</div>
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In case you're wondering if you need to remove the seat post in order to recharge the battery, the answer is <b>no</b>. The latest version of the Calfee battery allows you to charge it through a connector attached to the rear derailleur...very cool indeed!<br />
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I was told by my shop that getting all the wiring in place within the frame was a bit time consuming. I guess this next picture (my favorite) says it all:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzRcHo53xkjHCGQ8vBoIaNfx5B6rmEBzHrd2PaRRbHxTqQrf4VYiaZ2a7eyomyn4DxWn-zz9gIUlqXcDj7dJxwvqdt8bZ_NZus5FzQWE0ITqsklSf16nVyUraPdrQPvrU6SfTLSK2oBD0n/s1600/401666_10151177280085182_665550181_22909785_1036116257_n.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzRcHo53xkjHCGQ8vBoIaNfx5B6rmEBzHrd2PaRRbHxTqQrf4VYiaZ2a7eyomyn4DxWn-zz9gIUlqXcDj7dJxwvqdt8bZ_NZus5FzQWE0ITqsklSf16nVyUraPdrQPvrU6SfTLSK2oBD0n/s400/401666_10151177280085182_665550181_22909785_1036116257_n.jpeg" width="300" /></a></div>
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Is this a bicycle or a computer? All those little zip ties actually serve a purpose...while inside of the frame they "hug" the surface of the frame so that the wires don't rattle around in there...pretty clever.</div>
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The electronic shifting is amazing. The levers are located in the same locations as the non-electric version, but they act a bit more like buttons than levers since there's not as much throw to them. As expected shifting is precise and flawless...it's also dead simple to make micro-adjustments to the rear derailleur - just hold the button on the "control panel" for a couple of seconds and then tap the levers in the proper direction. Even more impressive in my opinion is the front derailleur; in addition to the flawless shifting the front derailleur auto-adjusts itself depending on the chain angle...no more having to manually trim! You can also shift while braking as well as shift both derailleurs simultaneously - very nice!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0tLRmzVWbMHJch4976tORPn4lHCbfYigl0qnbbxTF8YPI4-faUy9KJctM8kOnwq-vnzqgQCTtTsXy7h8xSF7uwn6TWOWrvKTSBhEptV7H7fO6XVOduvKvAkq089VngPftSz-EC-bSZnWl/s1600/321776_10151243883395182_665550181_23123153_1827959649_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0tLRmzVWbMHJch4976tORPn4lHCbfYigl0qnbbxTF8YPI4-faUy9KJctM8kOnwq-vnzqgQCTtTsXy7h8xSF7uwn6TWOWrvKTSBhEptV7H7fO6XVOduvKvAkq089VngPftSz-EC-bSZnWl/s400/321776_10151243883395182_665550181_23123153_1827959649_o.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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The "control panel" is used to fine-tune the rear derailleur as well as check the strength of the battery</div>
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Here are a selection of other pictures:<br />
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The "cockpit". Lots of wires and cables here, but all nice and tidy. Enve bars and stem. BTW, Enve also supplies Parlee with their forks.<br />
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Beautiful sculpted and beefy bottom bracket section. 172.5mm Dura-Ace cranks with standard 39/53 chainrings.<br />
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Dura-Ace electric rear derailleur - note the cabling being routed inside of the chainstay.</div>
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The "brains" of the system sit here on top of the Dura-Ace front derailleur.<br />
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The satellite rear shifters make it super easy to shift without having to take your hands off the bars. The only "cost" is the additional 70 grams in weight - weight weenies be warned!<br />
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And here is the finished product. In addition to the Dura Ace gruppo I went with <a href="http://www.enve.com/" target="_blank">Enve</a> for the seat post, bars (deep drop) and stem (12 cm.), Look Keo Ti pedals, San Marco Concor saddle (which I may switch out for something else) and Arundel carbon bottle cages. The only items I didn't purchase new are the Dura-Ace C24 clincher wheels which I bought last year and my trusty Garmin Edge 500 cyclometer. I also considered going with compact cranks as they are so in vogue now, but since the Euro pros aren't using compact I couldn't bear the thought of doing so myself!<br />
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The total package as seen weighs in at about 14 lbs, 12 oz, a bit under the UCI weight limit which means I can't legally ride the Tour de France :-) Once I finally settle on a saddle the weight will go down an additional ounce or two, as the one I'm using now is not a carbon-railed version. If I wanted to I could have gone much lighter, but I wanted components which I could use day in and day out under any conditions, with no hassles and with zero compromises. The bike rides like a dream - fast and responsive, stiff but not overly so, and very comfortable to boot. And of course, that flawless shifting! Thanks a bunch to the folks at <a href="http://www.cyclesportsonline.com/" target="_blank">CycleSports Oakland</a> who worked with me off and on over many months to get to this point. Special thanks to Chris Blease who continually put up with all my questions and obsessive-compulsive behavior, and also many thanks to Tim Parker whose mechanical abilities are second to none and who is the only person I've let touch my bikes for most of these past 20 years.</div>betabobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03907282560949252359noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727010911733679671.post-12675192104553464292011-12-26T17:18:00.000-08:002011-12-26T17:18:48.837-08:00My Ice Cream Sandwich is Quickly MeltingYou know you're a tech/gadget geek when you decide to perform a major OS upgrade while on vacation...and in Sin City of all places. But that's exactly what I did while I was in Vegas week before last. I caught wind of the fact that the latest version of Android, 4.0 (aka "Ice Cream Sandwich") was slowly being released over-the-air for the <a href="http://thebetabobblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/just-became-gingerbread-man-my-nexus-s.html" target="_blank">Nexus S</a>. Of course, being my impatient self I couldn't wait for that and instead found a download link off of Google's servers and manually upgraded myself. In typical Android fashion the upgrade process was very straightforward and in less than an hour I was up and running with the latest and greatest from Google. So how's my Ice Cream Sandwich experience been since then?<br />
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Well, let me start out by saying that if you are current Nexus S owner and have not yet upgraded....<b>please don't! </b>Google pulled the plug on the upgrade shortly after it was released due to a number of issues that were reported by early adopters. In some cases the upgrade never completed and essentially bricked the phone, in other cases certain functions stopped working post upgrade (e.g. WiFi), and in a lot of cases, myself included, battery consumption has simply been <b>atrocious </b>since the upgrade. Right now I'm lucky to get half a day of normal use out of my battery before it dies. Some people say that turning off WiFi or disabling the Google+ app helps, but I've done both and it doesn't seem to matter. I'm crossing my fingers that Google does something about this soon, and it's been such a royal pain in the ass that I'm even thinking of switching to Verizon and buying a <a href="http://shop.verizonwireless.com/?id=samsung%20nexus" target="_blank">Galaxy Nexus</a> just so that I don't have to deal with it anymore. And in addition to the power issue there are a couple of other major annoyances with ICS. Text rendering in Gmail and the browser seem to take forever sometimes, and some of my apps just appear to be more sluggish in general.<br />
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But despite all these issues there are some really nice enhancements with ICS. The Gmail app is a lot more refined and intuitive, and some of the more commonly used functions (e.g. labels, mark as unread) have dedicated icons now instead of your having to pull up the options menu. The notifications pulldown has also been enhanced to allow you to remove individual notifications by swiping them to the left. This new swiping gesture has been applied to a number of other places within ICS as well. Within Gmail you can swipe to go to the next/previous message, and within the "running apps" list you can kill specific apps by swiping them away - very nice. There's also a really cool new feature which allows you to send one of five preconfigured (and customizable) text messages to a caller during an incoming call when you can't pick up the phone. Ice Cream sandwich also seems to have addressed a couple of major issues that I often encountered with the Gingerbread OS. Sometimes when I press on the "home" button it would take at least 15 seconds for the icons to appear, and even worse, sometimes the home screen itself would become totally unresponsive and I would have to power cycle the device to fix it. Fortunately ICS addressed both of these issues.<br />
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Please Google, fix the damn battery issue and allow me to enjoy my Ice Cream Sandwich.betabobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03907282560949252359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727010911733679671.post-67246244258716632622011-11-18T08:00:00.000-08:002011-11-18T08:11:09.297-08:00New Kindle is good but not quite on FireFirst off, in answer to the most obvious question...No, I really don't need yet another device to supplement my Macbook Pro, iPad and Nexus S smartphone. But for $200 I really couldn't resist - compare that price to the <a href="http://thebetabobblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/overprice-kindle.html">price of the original Kindle</a>. Plus, as an Amazon Prime subscriber I felt if I got the Fire I would be more inclined to use the free services available to Prime subscribers, most notably the movies and TV shows that are available for free as part of my subscription.<br />
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My Kindle Fire arrived a day earlier than expected, which was a nice surprise. Setup was a total breeze - When I turned the device on I went through a short setup process and was up and running in less than 5 minutes. In fact, I didn't even have to enter my Amazon credentials since it assumed I was purchasing the device for myself and preauthorized my device...hmm, I wonder if that would be a problem if I were to buy one as a gift for somebody. Anyway, once the setup was completed it instantly made available all of my digital Amazon content - books, videos, music, etc. And it also made available all of the Amazon Appstore apps that I had previously purchased/installed on my Nexus S. So far so good.<br />
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I was also pleasantly surprised by the form factor of the device itself, as most of the reviews I had read had bashed it. At this point it's too early to say if a 7-inch screen is preferable to the 10 inches provided by the iPad and other devices, but it does make the device nearly pocketable and also more conducive to one-handed operations. I also appreciate the rubberized backing and sides of the device, is it makes the device easy to hold for long periods of time. This is something I don't like at all about the iPad 2, as its tapered edges make it very uncomfortable to hold for extended periods.<br />
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In terms of functionality, most of the built-in functions seem to work pretty well. As others have pointed out, even though the Fire is Android-based you would hardly know that Android is being run under the covers due to the heavy customization made by the Amazon developers. Video streaming, e-books, and music all worked without a hitch...nice job Amazon. Some of the apps, however, were less than stellar. The built-in mail app is really basic, and though it automatically configured my Gmail account it wouldn't detect my work email as also being Google-based and forced me to manually configure the IMAP settings...PITA. And it seems like the vast majority of 3rd-party apps are still not optimized for tablet devices, so all you get is a bigger version of the phone app. There are a few notable exceptions, however, like Evernote...those guys can do nothing wrong in my opinion!<br />
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By far the biggest disappointment is the performance of the much ballyhooed Silk browser. In theory Silk was supposed to render pages more quickly than any mobile browser due to the fact that Amazon was using its own <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/">EC2 </a>to serve and/or pre-cache a lot of your web content...resulting in fewer HTTP connections and speedier rendering. But in reality the Silk browser is probably the slowest mobile browser I've used. Perhaps Amazon hasn't enabled all of its fancy algorithms yet to optimize the Silk browsing experience, or maybe it needs to "learn" my browsing habits first. I sure hope they address this, as Silk was one of the biggest reasons for my getting the device in the first place.<br />
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Am I going to keep the Fire? Hard to say right now. On the one hand it's a great content consumption device, particularly for Prime subscribers. And for $200 you're getting great value for the dollar. But it certainly won't replace my iPad, and apart from the integration with Amazon's own services it doesn't do anything that the iPad doesn't already do...and in most cases doesn't do them nearly as well.betabobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03907282560949252359noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727010911733679671.post-74335371360813931862011-08-09T22:12:00.000-07:002011-08-09T22:12:44.003-07:00As the Saying Goes, Once you Go Mac.....Let me start out by just cutting to the chase...I'll never go back to Windows again!<br />
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Those that know me know that I've been weaning myself slowly off of Microsoft-based technologies. It started off with <a href="http://thebetabobblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-ever-decreasing-dependence-on.html">moving off of MS Exchange</a>, then <a href="http://thebetabobblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/bloatware-no-more-aka-goodbye-microsoft.html">Outlook</a>, then <a href="http://thebetabobblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/my-favorite-cloud-based-services.html">Office</a>...the last holdout being Windows itself. But after my recent job switch I decided I needed to finally bite the bullet...plus I was envious of seeing all the "cool and hip" people toting their Macbooks around from place to place while I was still lugging my uncool and unhip Thinkpad. I was told by several friends that the switch from Windows to Mac was going to be initially painful - one buddy of mine told me that "you will hate the damn thing for the first two weeks". Plus, every time I would walk into an Apple store and start playing around with a Mac it would last less than 5 minutes, as I would get so frustrated not being able to right-click, not figuring out how to resize a window, looking for the "file" menu, etc. The other complication is the fact that for the life of me I could never get used to touchpad-style pointing devices - I was a firm believer of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointing_stick">Trackpoint</a> and even preferred it over a regular mouse. Anyway, I definitely had my work cut out for me.<br />
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However, I was very pleasantly surprised by the fact that I was only completely frustrated on the first day, and after the second day I already knew I had made the right decision and knew that I would never go back to a PC again. I think there were a few reasons why the transition was not as painful as I had anticipated. First off, the fact that I've owned an iPad for awhile has conditioned me to "think like a Mac user"...if that makes any sense. There are a number of similarities between Mac OS and iOS, and with the recent <a href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/">Lion release</a> the two operating systems are even more alike than ever. Secondly, I don't use a ton of keyboard macros, and the ones I do use are all the basic ones and so it's simply a matter of remembering to use the "command" key instead of "ctrl"...so I had a much easier time of it when compared to the MS Office super-user types who get thrown off by all the keyboard macro differences between PC and Mac. And lastly, though I still miss the Trackpoint I've come to appreciate some of the benefits of the touchpad, particularly some of the multi-touch gestures that Mac OS provides.<br />
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Compared to Windows, Mac OS does seem to be a lot more stable and efficient in its use of system resources, and I've rarely run into issues that have caused me to reboot the machine, let alone encounter a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bsod">Blue Screen of Death</a> (BSOD) equivalent. With Windows I would periodically need to do a "therapeutic reboot" in order to free up system resources, or Windows itself would do that for me by blue-screening on me every once in awhile. And the hardware design of the Macbook Pro is so well thought out and the build quality is second to none. I can't even hear my hard disk spinning unless I press my ear against its surface - you would think there was an SSD inside of the machine. And all the little touches, such as the magnetically attached AC adapter and the little clips attached to the adapter that you wrap the cord around. It's no wonder Apple has won all those awards for design excellence.<br />
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But despite all of the improvements, far and away the best thing about my Mac is the fact that I now have <b>suspend/resume that actually works</b>! With Windows this has always been a crapshoot. I've had so many occasions in the past where I shut the lid on my laptop, commute home or to the office, get there and discover my laptop is still burning hot because it never went into suspend mode. Equally frustrating are the frequent occasions where you open the lid and wait for 10-15 minutes until you finally see the screen, all the while your hard disk is spinning away like crazy. I remember at one of my startups when we were fundraising and seeing VC's on a regular basis. We would go through this routine where we would open the lid on one of our laptops while parking the car, and carry it <b>with the lid still open </b>while walking into the VC reception area. We must have looked a bit silly, but we wanted to ensure our presentation/demo went without a hitch and didn't want to take a chance on the laptop screen staying blank. It's so comforting now to be able to just shut/open the lid freely anytime I need to and know that my machine will just work.<br />
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Is the Mac perfect? Heck no...there are a number of little things that still annoy me today. Why Steve Jobs doesn't allow you to cut-and-paste files is beyond me. And the fact that you can only see the "file" menu for the foreground app is a real pain in the butt. But overall it's been a great move for me, one that's been a long time coming. I'm also relieved that my multi-year quest to divorce myself of all things Microsoft has finally come to end...well, at least until the Skype acquisition is complete. I guess I still have a few months of freedom before needing to tackle this again!<br />
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betabobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03907282560949252359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727010911733679671.post-55207882299088617982011-06-12T22:48:00.000-07:002011-06-12T22:48:03.401-07:00Amazon Cloud Player vs. Google Music BetaLast week Apple gave us a previous of iCloud and iOS 5 at its annual <a href="http://developer.apple.com/wwdc/">WWDC</a> conference. What they showed was pretty impressive, but most of it is still beta and won't be generally available until the Fall. Of particular interest to me are their plans around moving iTunes to the cloud and <b>finally </b>relieving us of the painful and outdated method of cabled sync in order to move content to mobile devices. But if you're like me you don't live in a world where Steve Jobs has complete control over your mobile existence, there are a couple of Android-based alternatives available right now that you might want to look at; <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/dmusic/mp3/player">Amazon Cloud Player</a> and <a href="http://music.google.com/">Google Music Beta</a>.<br />
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Amazon Cloud Player has been around for the past two months or so, and I've been using it off and on since then with generally good success. They give everyone 5GB of storage for free, but as I mentioned <a href="http://thebetabobblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/my-favorite-cloud-based-services.html">in a prior blog post</a> you can get an upgrade to 20GB by purchasing any album, including a bunch for just 99 cents. Google Music Beta came out shortly after Amazon and gives you storage for up to 20,000 songs; plenty more than most people will require. I finally received an invite to the beta a couple of weeks ago and so I installed it right away and had a chance to compare it with Amazon. Here's how the two offerings compare:<br />
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<b>Installation: </b>Both products download and install very easily, and both use a Flash-based component for scanning music on your local machine and uploading it to the cloud. But they greatly differ in their approaches to this. <b> </b>The Amazon uploader must be manually initiated, and once it kicks off it spends a few minutes analyzing your iTunes library, compares it to what's already been stored in the cloud, and then presents you a screen where you can either automatically upload all the music it finds that's not already in the cloud or selectively upload the playlists, albums, artists, etc. that you'd like to be synced. It also provides a comprehensive report of content that it finds that it is unable to sync, e.g. DRM'd content. By contrast, Google's default mode is to always run in the background and automatically upload new iTunes music to the cloud, without the user having to take action. In theory this seems like a better and more elegant solution. However, in my case the Google software consumed nearly all of the CPU on my machine while scanning/uploading my iTunes content, and to add to my frustration the upload process itself took an incredibly long time - roughly a couple of days to upload just 3500 songs. In fact, the CPU consumption was so bad that I had to go into Task Manager and lower the priority of the Google music manager process.<br />
<b>Advantage: Amazon</b><br />
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<b>Web Music Player: </b>To be honest, I didn't spend much time using either player - after all, I've got iTunes running on my laptop! But they both seemed to do the job, and Google's player has a few extra features such as thumbs up/thumbs down and keeping track of the play count. But I do like the look of the Amazon player a little more, plus it has the advantage of being able to play music purchased from the Amazon MP3 store.<br />
<b>Advantage: Neither - it's a tie.</b><br />
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<b>Mobile App: </b>Both mobile apps did the job and generally worked well over Wi-Fi or when wireless coverage wasn't in issue. But on several occasions the Google app would just stop midway through a song for no explainable reason. I like the UI better on Amazon, and I like the fact that it lets you easily switch between music in the cloud vs. music sitting on your device. Google lets you do this as well, but you have to go into one of the options settings in order to switch back and forth...a bit of a pain. I've also used both applications during long bike rides that went through areas of spotty to low coverage, and I have to say that both applications had their share of issues when dealing with bad coverage and both frequently just stop working and never recover even when reception improves - maybe they should reverse engineer the <a href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.pandora.android&feature=search_result">Pandora app</a> and figure out how they are so good at dealing with this. Google would also randomly skip both forwards <b>and backwards </b>within a song when experiencing reception issues...very strange. Amazon performed a bit better, and I suspect it "reads ahead" within a playlist and stores upcoming songs within its local cache. I'm sure Google does some of this too, but perhaps its cache is smaller. One very annoying problem with Amazon is that it sometimes caches garbage for a song, and once it does then each time you play that song you'll hit that garbage and it just stops playing..at least until the cache is cleared. <br />
<b>Advantage: Amazon</b><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>iOS Support: </b>Well, as you would expect neither offering has native iOS support, although both claim to be usable from Mobile Safari. I was able to verify this myself using my iPad.<br />
<b>Advantage: Neither - it's a tie.</b><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
In summary, I have to give a slight edge to <b>Amazon</b>, although not by much. And both companies need to spend time on their Android apps and improve their handling and recovery of reception issues. <br />
<br />
Oh, and it looks like <a href="http://www.spotify.com/">Spotify</a> is close to launching here in the U.S....I can't wait.betabobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03907282560949252359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727010911733679671.post-61805752997794705222011-05-15T16:26:00.000-07:002011-05-15T16:26:10.069-07:00Always be NetworkingThis posting is a slight departure from my usual fare...<br />
<br />
For the second time during the past year I found myself having to look for work. I was fortunate enough to receive two offers recently, and I ended up taking a position running a venture called <a href="http://outbid.com/">outbid.com</a>. In a nutshell, Outbid is an online, virtual auction platform with built-in gaming mechanics. Now, for those of you that know me well you're probably wondering how this is so different from what I did at <a href="http://www.wigix.com/">Wigix</a>. Well, there are certainly some elements that are similar, but the main differentiators are the game mechanics themselves and the fact that we are simulating the <b>live auction experience</b>...what we are doing will truly be a game changer in this space.<br />
<br />
But I'm not here to plug Outbid so much as I am to share a little story about how my gig came to be. As it turns out, I was specifically recruited by somebody that I worked with many years ago and who happens to work for Outbid's parent company. Though we haven't seen or spoken to each other in at least a <b>dozen years</b>, we happen to be connected via Facebook and LinkedIn...and through these connections we happened to stay on top of each other's whereabouts and had a good sense of each other's careers during that span of time. So, when this opportunity came up he immediately thought of me because of my work at Wigix and other startups, and the fact that my IT background could also be leveraged. Anyway, after a couple of phone calls I came into their office one afternoon to meet with both he and his boss (parent company CEO), and before I left the offer was presented...and here I am!<br />
<br />
The moral of my story is this...For as long as you need to be part of the labor market you should always spend a portion of your free time building/maintaining your professional network. I've been fortunate for most of my career to not have to leverage my network to any great degree, but with all that's happened with me during the past year or so it's really brought to light just how important this is and how it should be an ongoing activity, both during good times and bad. And with social media being so easily accessible there really is no excuse for not doing so. I occasionally come across someone that has not jumped onto the Facebook or LinkedIn bandwagon...these are people typically of my generation (i.e. old) and when asked why this is the case they usually cite issues around their privacy. I say to these people: "Get over it". If you're not willing to accept and participate in this ongoing trend of increased transparency then you are going to be left behind and become dinosaurs, both literally and figuratively.betabobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03907282560949252359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727010911733679671.post-66862255176943245452011-04-13T18:29:00.000-07:002011-04-13T22:38:55.723-07:00My Favorite Cloud-Based ServicesAs part of my effort to move away from all things Microsoft and desktop software in general, I've been using a number of cloud-based services with regularity and am amazed at how far along they've come over the past year or two. In fact, I find their convenience and ease-of-use so compelling that I rarely find myself creating new content locally on my hard drive anymore. Plus, the fact that I can easily access these services from my PC, iPad or Android phone means that my data is always accessible no matter where I happen to be. And best of all, these services are all <b>free</b>! So...without further ado, here's a list of some of my favorites:<br />
<br />
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://docs.google.com/">Google Docs</a></span><br />
Not the newest kid on the block, but <a href="http://docs.google.com/">Google Docs</a> has made numerous improvements since it was launched a few years ago and I can safely say now that I'll never create another Microsoft Office document again. And if you're like me you only use about 10% of the functionality of MS Office anyway, so why keep all that bloatware on your PC? Docs is also accessible from both iOS and Android devices, though editing capabilities are somewhat limited on those platforms. And Google has made it pretty easy to share documents with specific individuals or across an entire workgroup; in fact, it's kind of cool working on a shared spreadsheet and being able to see other members of your team updating cells in real-time. And for those of you who have shied away from Docs thinking that it just couldn't be powerful enough to replace MS Office, have a look at <a href="https://docs.google.com/present/view?hl=en&id=0Ad5oWim5dM7AZG1xNzZ4aF8wcjgzN3BqZ3I">this presentation</a>.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.evernote.com/">Evernote</a></span><br />
I started to use <a href="http://www.evernote.com/">Evernote</a> when I decided to dump Outlook and needed another place to store all the little notes that I take - my grocery list, names of interesting restaurants I happen to spot, meeting notes, etc. Evernote does all this and then some. Among other things I can assign tags to my notes so that I can dynamically categorize them, with the <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pioclpoplcdbaefihamjohnefbikjilc">Evernote browser extension</a> I can push one button to clip a webpage and save it off as a note, I can have my Evernote content displayed within Google search results, and I can create a note instantly using a photo I just shot on my smartphone. The optional Evernote application is available on all the usual platforms, though on my PC I rarely use it because I find that their web interface to be more than sufficient. But their iPad app is a must have, as it's simply a thing of beauty.<br />
<br />
</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.dropbox.com/">Dropbox</a></span><br />
Why would anyone go through the hassle of setting up a shared public drive in their office when they could be using <a href="http://www.dropbox.com/">Dropbox</a> instead? Dropbox makes it dead simple to upload and store any type of file to its service, and optionally share files and/or folders with selected parties. It even keeps track of older versions of files and allows you to review their revision history. If you install the optional desktop application your Dropbox folder will even show up as a local PC or Mac folder, and you can operate against that folder just as you would with a file sitting on your hard drive. You also receive desktop notifications whenever a shared file is updated, and your local copy is automatically synced with the cloud. One word of caution, however...If you happen to be one of those unfortunate souls that must login to a Windows domain, then by default your local Dropbox folder will be created within your roaming profile. To avoid any potential syncing issues when running in disconnected mode you should go into the Dropbox application settings and change the location of this folder to somewhere within your local hard drive.<br />
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</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.lucidchart.com/">LucidChart</a></span><br />
I just started using <a href="http://www.dropbox.com/">LucidChar</a>t about a month ago and simply love it. If you ever have the need to quickly create a diagram or flowchart but don't want to hassle with something like Visio, then this is for you. Or, if you're like me and don't have an artistic bone in your body but occasionally need to produce a wire-frame in order to conceptualize an idea and share it with others then this is a must have. LucidChart is a functional replacement for Visio, and its wire-framing and "demo" capabilities are indispensable during the earlier stages of web design. And the entire application is written in HTML 5 and really showcases its power. One of its coolest features is the ability to search though Google Images for something you're looking for, and then once you locate it you can just drag-and-drop that image straight into your diagram.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/clouddrive">Amazon Cloud Drive</a></span><br />
Available just within the past two weeks, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/clouddrive">Amazon Cloud Drive</a> is what iTunes should aspire to be - a cloud-base service that allow you to stream and/or download your media content over the internet. As you would expect from Amazon the service is very robust and the UI is excellent. The optional Cloud Player app just takes a few short minutes to scan your entire iTunes library and creates a listing of all the artists, albums, playlists, etc. that can be uploaded to Cloud Drive. And for the ones that cannot be uploaded (e.g. unsupported format, DRM-protected, etc.) it displays a list of those files along with the specific reason why. Amazon gives everyone 5 GB of Cloud storage for free, and between now and the end of the year if you make just one MP3 purchase (I bought a 99-cent album) you'll get upgraded to 20 GB, enough for most people to store all of their music. I've moved my entire music library onto it and couldn't be happier...I can access my playlists from anywhere now and not have to worry about syncing. Unfortunately, for you iOS fanboys I'm afraid to say that currently you cannot access Cloud Drive content from an iPhone or iPad - perhaps you'll have to wait for Apple to get their act together and bring iTunes out of the stone ages in order to gain this capability.</div><div><div><br />
</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div></div>betabobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03907282560949252359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727010911733679671.post-88619314072411136972011-02-05T13:17:00.000-08:002011-02-05T13:17:01.479-08:00Bloatware No More, aka Goodbye Microsoft OutlookI've used Microsoft Outlook as my preferred email client literally from the day the first beta was released back in the late 90's - I think the initial version was called Outlook 97. To me it was a breath of fresh air, as I could do all of my email and calendaring from the same window. My company was in the process of rolling out MS Exchange across the enterprise, and so Outlook was a huge improvement over having to use the kludgey combination of the MS Exchange client along with Schedule Plus - anyone but me remember that one?<br />
<br />
Over the dozen plus years since then I've used each and every version of Outlook. Functionality-wise it keeps getting better and better, especially when you've got an Exchange server on the back-end. However, at the same time its footprint seems to get bigger and bigger with each release...sometimes I go into Task Manager and see that it consumes <b>half a gig</b> of RAM...WTF does it need half a gig for? And the time it take to load the software on my machine seems to increase the more I use the product...somehow all these plug-ins get installed on my behalf and I'm forced to stare at the Outlook splash screen waiting for each of these to load - a real exercise in patience. And finding out how to disable these plug-ins is no easy chore, and also can only be done <b>within Outlook itself</b>. This ended up being a major headache for me a couple of months ago when my Outlook was hanging every time I launched it and the culprit was this antivirus plug-in that had been recently updated. Suffice it to say that it was quite the challenge to finally fix this problem - it took multiple attempts before I could disable the plug-in within the short time window between launching Outlook and having it start hanging again.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://thebetabobblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-ever-decreasing-dependence-on.html">I've written in the past</a> about how I've reduced my dependency on Microsoft over time, and now I'm pleased to report that I've finally ridden myself of this overly engineered, bloated piece of software called Outlook. I've been using Gmail and/or Google Apps mail for the most part anyway these past few years, and the native web versions have also gotten a lot better over time. Offline viewing has been available for the past couple of years; a few months back they finally allowed you to disable "conversation view", which for the life of me I could never get used to; and they even implemented a few new features such as <a href="http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/desktop-notifications-for-emails-and.html">notification pop-ups</a> that you'd normally only find in traditional desktop applications. And I've also come to appreciate the way Gmail uses <b>labels </b>as an alternative to folders - it's actually a much more elegant solution than having to manage a folder hierarchy. Since I've made the switch I've never found a need to go back, and my laptop thanks me for it!<br />
<br />
As far as the other functions of Gmail/Google Apps go, I think it handles my calendaring and contact management needs just fine. A weak point in my opinion has always been its task management. There have been some recent improvements here as well, but features I've grown accustomed to in Outlook such as the ability to create recurring tasks are still not supported - not a show stopper, however. Getting rid of Outlook has also made it easier for me to synchronize data to my mobile devices. Since I've been using Android for awhile it's great never have to think about synchronizing my mail, calendar and contacts to my <a href="http://thebetabobblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/just-became-gingerbread-man-my-nexus-s.html">Nexus S</a>, and there are some great 3rd-party solutions for syncing other types of data such as <a href="http://weloveastrid.com/">tasks</a> and <a href="http://www.evernote.com/">notes</a>.<br />
<br />
So goodbye Outlook, my old and dear friend....I don't think I'll be missing you. But despite all the frustrations I've had to endure, <a href="http://lotusnotessucks.4t.com/">I guess it could have been worse</a>.betabobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03907282560949252359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727010911733679671.post-75190719719063934022010-12-17T17:22:00.000-08:002010-12-18T13:39:44.010-08:00Just Became a Gingerbread Man - My Nexus S UpgradeI received an unexpected gift yesterday, the latest and greatest "pure Android" phone, the <a href="http://www.google.com/nexus/#">Google Nexus S</a> and its interesting curved screen. When it was announced a few weeks back I wasn't sure if I was going to upgrade or not - I had planned to drop by a local Best Buy to check out a demo unit. But receiving a freebie certainly solved that dilemma for me...and boy, now that I've used it a bit I would have gladly paid for the upgrade myself.<div><br /></div><div>Probably the biggest improvement is the overall speed of the device. My <a href="http://www.wigix.com/item/4241163/HTC-Google-Nexus-One">Nexus One</a> was and still is no slouch in this regard, but the Nexus S puts it to shame in just about every way. I'm not sure if it's the upgraded hardware or the optimizations that were made in the latest <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_OS">Android</a> version (Gingerbread) that made the big difference - probably a combination of both. But routine tasks such as web browsing and downloading/installing applications are much faster than ever before.</div><div><br /></div><div>The other major improvement is the substantial increase in the amount of available "Internal Storage". The Nexus S ships with 16GB of flash memory and devotes a portion of that to "internal storage", which hold apps and app-related data; and the bulk of it to external "USB Storage" - this is in lieu of allowing for a user-replaceable SD card. Some people have griped about the lack of an SD slot, but 16GB is quite a bit of storage and so I don't think this is a very big deal. But what's really nice about this is that the amount of internal storage the Nexus S sets aside (~1GB) is so generous that I never have to worry about overloading my device with apps and running into the dreaded "low memory" errors. On the Nexus One I always tried to always stay above 20MB of free memory so that I didn't run into this problem, but after setting up the Nexus S and installing the exact same set of apps it showed me that I still had over 800MB of internal memory available. So now I can go on my merry way and start installing new apps with reckless abandon again!</div><div><br /></div><div>Some of the other niceties on the Nexus S are:</div><div><ul><li>The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_AMOLED">Super AMOLED</a> screen is not only gorgeous but actually usable in bright sunlight. This was one of my biggest gripes with the Nexus One's screen, especially when attempting to shoot daytime photos and videos.</li><li>The call quality through the headset seems to be stellar, better than on the Nexus One.</li><li>Real (vs. quasi) multi-touch capability allows me to take advantage of some of the newer apps such as the uber-cool Google Maps V5 with its 3D rendering.</li><li>The new Gingerbread keyboard works better and is more user-friendly than the prior Froyo version, though probably still not in the same league as the iPhone 4.</li><li>Built-in support for 3rd-part VoIP (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Session_Initiation_Protocol">SIP</a>) providers - this is useful mostly for geeks like me, but now I don't have to install a separate SIP application when needing to do Wi-Fi calling while traveling overseas or if I'm in a bad reception area.</li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_Field_Communication">Near Field Communication</a> (NFC) support. This is the first device I'm aware of that supports NFC, so we'll wait and see how useful this will be over time.</li><li>Oh, did I say the Nexus S is fast? :-)</li></ul><div>Okay, now a few Nexus S downsides:</div></div><div><ul><li>The omission of an LED light and a trackball/trackpad - the latter is not a big deal to me since the only time I ever used the Nexus One's trackball was when I needed to position the cursor within a block of text - Gingerbread handles this pretty well now without that need for it. I do, however, miss not having the LED notification as it was a very useful way of letting me know when I received an email or text without having to turn on the screen.</li><li>Because it uses a plastic vs. metal backing it doesn't feel quite as solid as the Nexus One, but I don't find this as bothersome as some of the other reviewers. Also, taking off the back cover in order to get to the battery or SIM card takes more work than on the Nexus One.</li><li>Lack of 4G support - This is the major reason why I would not have purchased the phone on my own. Though 4G availability on T-Mobile is not yet widespread, it would have been nice to include this support in order to make the device more future-proof. On the other hand, 3G speeds are pretty good and noticeably faster than on the Nexus One, and I guess not having 4G saves me the $15/month that T-Mobile inexplicably dings their customers for using that service.</li></ul><div>Overall I'm very happy with the device and will definitely hold onto it for awhile.</div></div>betabobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03907282560949252359noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727010911733679671.post-23267786221839149412010-10-23T22:11:00.000-07:002010-10-29T11:24:12.318-07:00Late to the iPad PartySince I've been hating on Apple for quite awhile now, it should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me that I did not "invest" in the <a href="http://www.apple.com/ipad/">iPad</a> when it came out back in April. But truth be known, I came very close to buying one back then, and mainly didn't because of the lack of Flash support and the omission of a front-facing camera - two "gotta haves" in my opinion back then. Since that time I've reconsidered this decision numerous times, then as the months progressed I told myself that rather than purchase one now I would instead hold out for the next-gen model - it still wouldn't have Flash, but for sure it would have the built-in camera plus the latest and greatest multi-tasking iOS version...and maybe even some other neat bells and whistles.<div><br /></div><div>Well, after 6 months of pondering I finally caved in and bought one a few weeks ago. What was it that finally put me over the edge? Well, for one thing a few of my friends had recently purchased or considered one and that got me more interested, and as a result I spent more time playing around with the iPad and fell in love with some of the applications. In particular I can't say enough good things about the amazing <a href="http://www.flipboard.com/">Flipboard</a> app, which takes content aggregation and formatting to a whole new level. I particularly like how it aggregates and displays Twitter and Facebook feeds in a more user-friendly and consumable format...great stuff!</div><div><br /></div><div>I also wanted the ability easily read or watch videos while laying around the house or in bed. Sure, I can do that already with my regular laptop, but in reality I rarely do so because it's a bit too clunky and inconvenient, and I always have to worry about running out of battery. The iPad does a fantastic job of this. Both the iBooks app and the Amazon Kindle app work great for reading books, the built-in Safari browser does a formidable job in rendering web content (although I prefer the 3rd-party <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/atomic-web-browser-lite-fullscreen/id355513788?mt=8">Atomic</a> browser), and the free Netflix app as well as the overly expensive SlingPlayer Mobile player do a fine job in streaming TV shows and movies. And the iPad's battery life is simply out of this world...I can last a full week on a single charge using the device a an hour or two each day.</div><div><br /></div><div>Lastly, I wanted something more lightweight than my normal laptop which I can tote around with me wherever I go and still have access to the internet as well as any applications I might need to use. My netbook was supposed to serve this purpose, and though <a href="http://thebetabobblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/ive-become-fan-of-netbook.html">I previously raved about it</a> I soon came to realize that it really didn't do anything particularly well...I've since given up on it. The iPad's form factor and light weight make for great portability, and though its lack of a physical keyboard as well as support for some of the more common desktop applications prevent it from being a full laptop replacement, I feel that at least 80% of my computing needs can be fulfilled by it. The iPad is hands down the best reading device on the face of the planet, and let's face it - most computer users, including myself, spend the majority of their time simply consuming content - email, web browsing, social networking, watching videos, etc. As for the other 20% of my computing (including writing this blog article) I'll still have to go back to my laptop, though by using a nifty remote desktop app such as <a href="http://antecea.com/products/desktop-connect.html">Desktop Connect</a> I can even get away with using the iPad for accessing some of my Windows-based applications.</div><div><br /></div><div>Is the device perfect? No, like anything else it does have its share of flaws. The biggest annoyance for me is the lack of multi-tasking, which I hope will be addressed with an iOS update that supposedly arrives here in November. Too often I find myself having to break out of the current application I am using (sometimes even forced out), then when I come back to it later it reloads rather than resumes where I left off. And boy it would be nice to have Pandora running in the background all the time. I also find both the CPU and graphics rendering to be pretty sluggish at times, but not nearly as bothersome as with my netbook. And though it is the quintessential reading device I do find the iPad to be a bit on the heavy side, especially when compared to the pure e-readers such as the Kindle and Nook. The lack of Flash support is also a bummer, though it seems like many sites have aggressively moved to HTML 5 in recent months - so it hasn't been as big of a problem as I thought. And finally....a front-facing camera would sure be great for video conferencing and the like, but now that <a href="http://www.chatroulette.com/">Chatroulette</a> is on its death march I guess I can live without it :-)</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Bob</div>betabobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03907282560949252359noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727010911733679671.post-87670326424388909652010-08-17T17:59:00.000-07:002010-08-18T18:00:55.715-07:00New Job, New TivoThis is just a quickie update to let folks know what I've been up to lately. First and foremost, I am happy to announce that I started a new gig last month as CTO for a cool (and profitable!) startup called <a href="http://www.cyphermedia.com">Cypher Media</a>. They are in the online marketing business, and in addition to that there are some major plans afoot to evolve the company in some new and potentially game-changing ways...so stay tuned!<div><br /></div><div>I also recently purchased the new <a href="http://www.tivo.com/products/tivo-premiere/index.html">Tivo Premiere</a> box that came out earlier this year. It wasn't a conscious choice on my part to buy the new unit, but my trusty (and recently out of warranty) <a href="http://www.wigix.com/item/291765/TiVo-HD-DVR-TCD652160">Tivo HD</a> all of a sudden crapped out one day and refused to boot up. I'm almost positive it was a hard drive problem, and I'm sure that given some time I could have hacked into the Tivo and replaced the hard drive myself. I also had the option of paying Tivo $149 for a refurbished replacement, but that would leave me DVR-less for at least several days. That may have been okay under normal circumstances, but the timing of the failure couldn't have been any worse because it occurred right during the middle of the <a href="http://www.letour.fr/us/index.html">Tour de France</a>! So unless I was willing to wake up at 5am each morning to watch the live coverage (NOT!) I needed a quick fix, and that quick fix was to just buy a new Tivo Premiere and get it shipped overnight from <a href="http://www.amazon.com">Amazon</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>As usual, setting up the Tivo was a very painless exercise, and props to Tivo for making this as easy as possible for the average Joe. Getting things setup properly with <a href="http://www.comcast.com">Comcast</a> is an entirely different story, however...as usual it took a couple of calls plus a lot of wait time on the phone before the CableCard "pairing" process successfully completed and I was able to access all of my channels - for some reason HBO always seems to be a problem.</div><div><br /></div><div>There's been a fair bit of discussion regarding the new Premiere and how it differs from the previous generation of Tivo's. Quite honestly, the differences are relatively few, and so if you are a happy Tivo Hd or Tivo XL owner then I don't think there's enough new functionality to justify the switch. The major new "feature" is the revamped, Flash-based "HD" user interface, and quite honestly it is a mixed bag. If you have an older Tivo you probably have seen what this looks if you've tried the Tivo "beta search" feature, which lets you search for content not only within the Tivo guide but across the various internet sources that Tivo supports - Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, etc. The biggest problem with the UI is that it is incredibly SLOW...the system often hangs and hangs when switching between menus. And the UI is still not complete, i.e. some of the menus sport the new UI but a good number of menus are still using the older UI - making for a very disjointed user experience. There are two very nice things I like about it, though: 1) the Now Playing list (aka "My Shows") now displays the percent utilization on the hard disk for programs that you've recorded and saved; and 2) within some of the top-level menus you can still see what's currently playing on your Tivo via a small window on the upper right corner of the screen. I always found it annoying with the old UI that as soon as I hit the Tivo button whatever I was watching got instantly preempted...the new UI allows you to keep watching that program while navigating within the menu.</div><div><br /></div><div>The other really nice improvement is the increase in speed when transferring content to or from the Tivo. I can now transfer HD content via <a href="http://pytivo.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/PyTivo">PyTivo</a> at a rate nearly equivalent to real-time, i.e. I can start viewing the content almost immediately and not have to worry about getting ahead of the file transfer itself. SD content has never been a problem, but with HD content you're talking 5x or so more data and the old Tivo just couldn't transfer data fast enough to keep up when I wanted to play something "on demand".</div><div><br /></div><div>Hopefully Tivo will address the UI sluggishness issues before too long. The Premiere also contains a dual-core processor, but my understanding is that the second core has been disabled by Tivo due to some multi-threading problems that were encountered during testing. Perhaps if they can fix this and enable the second core that may help speed up the UI as well.</div><div><br /></div>betabobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03907282560949252359noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727010911733679671.post-70192180256920498122010-05-27T16:13:00.000-07:002010-05-27T16:59:23.710-07:00I'm Loving my FroyoBeing the Android fanboy that I am, I was eager to install the latest and greatest 2.2 release (aka Froyo) that just became available over the weekend onto my <a href="http://www.google.com/phone">Nexus One</a>. After several days of playing around with the release I have to say that there are some really nice new features and enhancements, but most of them are relatively small and so I wouldn't say the release is a "must have" for everybody. However, for those techno-geeks like me it is a worthwhile upgrade. Among some of the niceties are:<div><ul><li>Built-in tethering support: This is the feature I've been eagerly anticipating. You can now configure your Android device to be a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MiFi">MiFi</a> and save yourself the 50 bucks a month you're currently spending with your carrier. You can also tether to your device via USB, and if you're using Windows 7 then it just plain works without your having to install additional software or drivers...and no cheesy Dial-Up Networking config either.</li><li>The home screen has a few subtle but useful changes. Shortcuts to the phone and browser apps now appear on the lower section of each home screen, making it easier to launch both apps without having to search for their specific icons. The search bar has also been enhanced to allow you to limit your searches to just websites, applications or contacts.</li><li>Voice search appears to be quite a bit more accurate than before. You also now have the ability to select several different languages/dialects for voice search.</li><li>Battery life seems to have improved a bit as well, although it's hard to quantify.</li><li>The entire OS seems a bit more responsive than before. I've read some benchmark reports indicating that Froyo is up to 5 times faster than Eclair (2.1). I'm certainly not seeing a 5x improvement, but nonetheless the speed improvement is noticeable and appreciated.</li><li>You now have the option to auto-update any of your downloaded/purchased apps when new versions become available.</li><li>For those like me who are rapidly turning grey, the Gmail app finally supports scalable fonts. Why you can't use pinch-to-zoom across all apps is still beyond me, though...come on Google.</li><li>Flash support: Finally! And it seems to work pretty well as best as I can tell.</li><li>I also found out about this <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/23/chrome-to-android-push/">send-to-phone</a> Chrome extension and Android app that let's you instantly send a web page or Google Map from your PC to your Android device, a la Jack Bauer on 24. Very cool indeed!</li></ul></div>betabobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03907282560949252359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727010911733679671.post-38791859387486293692010-02-23T17:07:00.001-08:002010-02-25T00:22:30.640-08:00Is the Point and Shoot Digital Camera Dead?As much as I enjoy personal technology, it's rare that I'll walk into an electronics store such as <a href="http://www.bestbuy.com/">Best Buy</a> and just look around. But I happened to do just that over the weekend, and while there I spent a few minutes browsing around all the different departments, looking at the latest and greatest they had to offer. When I went over to check out the digital cameras I marveled at how far they've come along...it's hard to believe that they keep getting smaller but even more feature rich, and at prices that are lower than ever before - <a href="http://www.wigix.com/item/4458311/Canon-PowerShot-SX210-IS-Black---14.1-Megapixel">here's an example</a> of the one of the newest Canon's about to be released. But what was even more striking is the fact that during the time I was looking at cameras, not one other customer wandered over to that department. Now granted, I was there for only about 5 minutes or so, but if you've ever walked into your local Best Buy you know just how much foot traffic those stores generate, especially during weekends. But the lack of camera interest from other customers was very enlightening and confirms what I had already been thinking for some time now....Point and Shoot digital cameras are a dying breed.<div><br /></div><div>I've mentioned in previous blog entries that we now live an era where accessibility is often more important than functionality, and taking pictures is another great example of that. I used to keep my trusty <a href="http://www.wigix.com/item/504631/Canon-PowerShot-SD700-IS---6.0-Megapixel">Canon SD700</a> packed permanently in my briefcase, in case I ever felt the urge or need to take a picture. But several months ago, after realizing that I was using my camera phone for pretty much all spur-of-the-moment picture taking, I decided to unpack it and it rarely has been touched since then. If you go out on the street today and see people at restaurants, sporting events and family gatherings you'll notice that the majority of them are now taking pictures with their camera phones instead of with standalone cameras. And they are doing so because: 1) it's easier not to have to carry around an extra device; 2) the emergence of killer smartphones such as the <a href="http://www.wigix.com/item/3197826/Apple-iPhone-3G-S-32GB">iPhone</a> and <a href="http://www.wigix.com/item/4241163/HTC-Google-Nexus-One">Nexus One</a>; 3) camera phone technology keeps getting better and better (btw the Nexus One's built-in camera is pretty stellar); and 4) within a matter of seconds the picture or video you've just taken can be uploaded to Facebook or YouTube and instantly shared with anyone. Now, before someone starts declaring that camera phones are not intended for <b>serious </b>photo use, please note that I am only talking casual use here...and that is why I focus specifically on the point and shoot variety of cameras.</div><div><br /></div><div>Need more proof? I recently stumbled across <a href="http://www.flickr.com/cameras/">this great webpage</a> from Flickr which breaks down camera usage on their site by type, brand, etc...I've taken the liberty of including some of their screenshots here:</div><div><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFMqOHHDiayyOG91B3e5NQ1vXSow-Cer_cyiDNdciCjbqcTfNsXrkF4wEnJOSK-RaMWlwW6Lrc_VyLtH_0ipdoajPJzitYGDoS3RDl8-uvr65O7LQLUTuwCBr9-CkJpoIMPZJPd9sYCUyq/s1600-h/most+popular+cameras.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 800px; height: 226px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFMqOHHDiayyOG91B3e5NQ1vXSow-Cer_cyiDNdciCjbqcTfNsXrkF4wEnJOSK-RaMWlwW6Lrc_VyLtH_0ipdoajPJzitYGDoS3RDl8-uvr65O7LQLUTuwCBr9-CkJpoIMPZJPd9sYCUyq/s400/most+popular+cameras.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441978996545557586" /></a><br />The graph above shows the most popular cameras being used across all of Flickr, and as you can see the iPhone is already at the very top, with a number of digital SLR's taking up the other top positions.<div><br /></div><div><br /></div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdDIR3K_U3OgB4QRroh35vlE2loikcPY3O1z7L3f9SgzjuG6OVUC7v8r2wlQ-Y_XGE1lnoM4hyphenhyphenu1y3CFuwFcziNSu2htbp8WkCYAnFgVlvFV19GWIZhIMUTc69c7me5vixRU7kUdjNjtPY/s1600-h/poplular+point+and+shoot.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 800px; height: 318px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdDIR3K_U3OgB4QRroh35vlE2loikcPY3O1z7L3f9SgzjuG6OVUC7v8r2wlQ-Y_XGE1lnoM4hyphenhyphenu1y3CFuwFcziNSu2htbp8WkCYAnFgVlvFV19GWIZhIMUTc69c7me5vixRU7kUdjNjtPY/s400/poplular+point+and+shoot.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441980261539975490" /></a><br />This graph shows the most popular point and shoot cameras. You can clearly see that the popularity of these cameras is waning over time.<div><br /></div><div>Much like the standalone GPS companies, camera manufacturers should either focus on partnerships with handset manufacturers or concentrate their efforts in competing successfully in the DSLR or other "high end" camera categories. Traditional point and shoot is going to be dead before you know it.</div><div><br /></div><div>What do you all think?</div><div><br /></div>betabobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03907282560949252359noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727010911733679671.post-59202368611519394892010-01-08T23:38:00.000-08:002010-01-12T19:08:26.167-08:00Goodbye Blackberry - Hello Nexus One and AndroidI've been a pretty devout Blackberry user these past 10 years, starting with the original, clunky pager-looking model and ending with the <a href="http://www.wigix.com/item/2215503/BlackBerry-8900-Curve-Series">Curve 8900</a>. And between that time I must have cycled through half a dozen other models including the <a href="http://www.wigix.com/item/2538143/BlackBerry-7100t-71xx-Series">7100T</a>, <a href="http://www.wigix.com/item/1601/BlackBerry-8700c-87xx-Series">8700</a> and <a href="http://www.wigix.com/item/484260/BlackBerry-8320-Curve-Series">8320</a>. The main reason I've stuck with Blackberry so long is because it does a few things really well, push email being at the top of the list. And if you happen to be using the combination of Microsoft Outlook/Exchange on your desktop then the integration with Blackberry is rock solid and hard to beat.<div><br /></div><div>So...what's finally gotten me to make a move after all these years? Well, three things really. First off, the popularity of the <a href="http://www.wigix.com/item/3197826/Apple-iPhone-3G-S-32GB">iPhone</a> and other newer smartphones has certainly made me think of all the functionality I am losing out on by sticking with Blackberry. Though the Blackberry has made good strides to close the gap, I feel it's quite stuck in the stone ages by comparison. Secondly, as I mentioned in <a href="http://thebetabobblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-ever-decreasing-dependence-on.html">my last blog post</a> my dependency on all things Microsoft has been drastically reduced over the past few years, corresponding with my increased dependency on Google-based apps. And finally, one year after the launch of Android there's finally a device cool enough that captures my imagination and allows me to migrate without having to switch cell phone carriers - that device is the new <a href="http://www.wigix.com/item/4241163/HTC-Google-Nexus-One">Google Nexus One</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>I ordered the Nexus One on the day of the official launch and received it promptly the next morning via FedEx. Setting up the device was an absolute breeze, especially since I am a Gmail user. I entered the credentials for both my work and personal accounts, and it automatically began syncing all my email, contacts and calendar with my new phone. No software installation, no tethering of the device in order to sync...very painless! I then configured some of the preloaded applications such as Facebook, Google Voice and Google Maps...the latter is simply awesome, BTW. Finally, I downloaded a number of my "must have" applications including Yelp, OpenTable, Pandora and an RSS reader. All were downloaded and installed painlessly from the Android Market. I was actually quite surprised (in a good way) at the abundance of good applications already in the Android Market.</div><div><br /></div><div>How do I like the phone? Well, I have to say that I love it and I'm never going back to the Blackberry! In addition to do all the normal phone sorts of things the apps themselves are highly functional, and the built-in browser is quite good as well. I'm one of those types that always likes to be near my computer in case I need to have access to something, and with the Blackberry I never felt that it could replace much of the functionality of my computer except when it came to email. But with the Nexus One I feel that I'm not compromised much, if at all, when using its browser or applications in lieu of my PC. In fact, being less dependent on my PC now feels quite liberating.</div><div><br /></div><div>Inevitably there will be questions regarding the Nexus One and whether or not it is an "iPhone killer". There is plenty written about this already, so I'm not going to even make an attempt to tackle the topic. I suspect that most people will feel right now that the iPhone is still a better device, mainly because of the thousands upon thousands of cool apps that have already been written for it. But I also think that with the emergence of Android, along the hype surrounding some of the latest Android-based phones such as the Nexus One and <a href="http://www.wigix.com/item/4055995/Motorola-Droid">Motorola Droid</a>, that the gap will start to diminish rapidly. But there are a number of other reasons why I feel the Android platform has a good shot at beating Apple <b>in the long run</b>:</div><div><ul><li>Carrier independence - In the US you can already purchase Android phones that work on the T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint networks. And <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/06/atandt-finally-goes-android-confirms-dell-htc-and-motorola-on-bo/">AT&T just announced</a> upcoming availability of several Android-based phones by this summer. With the iPhone your choice is currently limited to AT&T and AT&T...lousy 3G and all. Yes, there are rumors floating around about some deal being cut with Verizon, but nothing official just yet.</li><li>Device manufacturer independence - If you're an iPhone user you've got just one single handset choice. Yes, it's a great handset. But what if your requirement is that you need a hard keyboard, or maybe a flip-style phone? Sorry folks, you're just out of luck. But with Android you can already purchase handsets made by a variety of manufacturers such as HTC, Motorola and Samsung...and more are on the way. Device independence also allows for things that we sometimes take for granted, such as the ability to expand memory or replace the battery. Sorry, you can't do either of these on the iPhone.</li><li>Developer frustration - The iPhone application approval process has been a source of consternation for many developers, and many have expressed their disdain over the sometimes draconian attitude that Apple seems to impose. As an open source platform I feel that Android is much more developer friendly. Yes, being more open can have its drawbacks too, but overall I think in the long run both the developer community as well as the end users are better served by an open model.</li><li>Background applications - Being able to run Pandora in the background while using another Android application is pure joy. Part of the reason Google Voice works so well on Android is because it also runs the background. Apple claims that background applications can negatively affect the user experience, so that's why they don't allow it. Well, I say screw their lame excuse and tell them to get on board with every operating system that's been in existence since the 1950's.</li></ul><div>Apple is this decade's version of the "Microsoft Monopoly". That monopoly has started to crumble apart, and I can foresee the same thing happening to Apple if they continue with this display of arrogance. It's good for them that their products are the ultimate in "cool" at the moment, but at some point the luster will wear off and they will have to start playing some ball.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>betabobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03907282560949252359noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-727010911733679671.post-43534236277832560292009-12-13T10:19:00.001-08:002011-01-08T17:58:02.096-08:00My Ever-Decreasing Dependence on Microsoft, aka My Growing Dependence on Community and Open SourceTen years ago I was an IT executive at a Fortune 500 financial services company, and I had overall responsibility for all the desktop and server technology that ran our internal applications. At the time we were on the leading edge of <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/">Microsoft</a> technologies, and had rolled out Windows NT-based desktops to the entire company along with hundreds of Windows servers that ran everything from our corporate email to our internal <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_relationship_management">CRM</a> application. I was a staunch proponent of Microsoft during this time, as not only were their solutions a lot cheaper to run than the alternatives at the time (mostly <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix">UNIX</a>-based) but the tight integration between Windows-based apps and the relative simplicity of dealing with a single platform seemed to make a lot of sense to me. Plus, some of their apps were clearly the best at the time, e.g. <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/2010/en/us/default.aspx">Microsoft Exchange</a> which arguably still provides the best email experience out there.<br />
<div><br />
</div><div>Fast forward now to present day. I am now the co-founder in a Web 2.0 startup with less than 40 employees, and like most startups we try to do as much as we can on the cheap. How much Microsoft technology am I using today? Well, I am still quite dependent on my Windows laptop which is now running the latest and greatest OS, <a href="http://www.wigix.com/item/3935407/Microsoft-Windows-7-Professional">Windows 7</a>. And I do spend a great deal of time within the <a href="http://www.wigix.com/item/736501/Microsoft-Office-Professional-2007">Microsoft Office</a> suite, whether it's managing my calendar and email or working on slides for a presentation. But that's pretty much it. Our major IT expense outside of people costs are the hardware and datacenter fees associated with running our website, but outside of that our IT expenses are close to zero. Let's look at some of the details.</div><div><br />
</div><div>The <a href="http://www.wigix.com/">Wigix</a> website is run completely on open source, mainly the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LAMP_(software_bundle)">LAMP</a> stack plus some <a href="http://www.java.com/en/">Java</a> that is required for our search engine, which is also based on open source. The corporate IT types may shudder at the thought of relying on the community for support instead of going with one of the big players (e.g. <a href="http://www.ibm.com/">IBM</a>, <a href="http://www.oracle.com/">Oracle</a>), but my experience has been that the community provides a level of support and interaction that often exceeds that of the big software companies. And from an installation, integration and ease-of-use standpoint open source tends to be far easier to deal with than their licensed software counterparts. We are not in the minority here, as nearly all startups are heavy users of open source technology. BTW, does anyone even care about <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/internet-information-services.aspx">IIS</a> anymore?</div><div><br />
</div><div>Like all other companies we are quite dependent on email. While I would love nothing better than to have the rich experienced associated with Exchange, I find that the free mail service provided by <a href="http://www.google.com/apps/">Google Apps</a> (based on Gmail) is more than sufficient for our use. In fact, in this day and age of "real-time" I believe most people place a higher priority on <b>accessibility</b> and <b>ease-of-use</b> over pure functionality. Google has been nothing short of masterful on this front. I still use Outlook in order to access my mail, because I never got used to the way Gmail threads its discussions. But my fondness for Outlook is diminishing over time as well...right now it is the one app that routinely seems to bog down my laptop. Some of my employees have been pleading with me to switch to <a href="http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/">Thunderbird</a> or another open source solution. I may eventually do that, probably at the same time I ditch my <a href="http://www.wigix.com/item/2215503/BlackBerry-8900-Curve-Series">Blackberry Curve</a> and switch to the upcoming <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/12/12/the-google-phone-unlocked-confirmed-and-more-details/">Google Phone</a>.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Another good example is the web browser. Up until 2 years ago I used Internet Explorer exclusively, as I felt I needed all of its rich functionality, all of its toolbars and plug-ins, etc. But when <a href="http://www.google.com/chrome">Chrome</a> came out I decided to give it a try, and I haven't looked back since. The speed and simplicity of the browser seemed to outweigh everything else, and I realized that I didn't even really miss all the add-ons and extensions of IE. In fact, in the time it just takes to <b>launch </b>IE 8 on my laptop I could bring up Chrome and already be browsing a few websites...seriously. And now that Chrome supports <a href="https://chrome.google.com/extensions">extensions</a> and does so in an elegant manner that does not bog the system down there is simply no reason to ever go back.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Microsoft has a huge challenge in front of itself competing with free. For sure, they can feel secure for awhile that the Fortune 500 types will continue to provide a steady revenue stream for them, but for how long? Except for Windows itself and the Office suite I've completely removed my dependency on them, and I suspect it won't be too long before I no longer have a need for Office either. And I have to think that many others feel the same way that I do too. This is unfortunate, because despite my commentary I've always had much admiration for the company, its leadership and the innovative technology they've brought to the market over the years.</div>betabobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03907282560949252359noreply@blogger.com2