Living Like the Jetsons: Smart Technologies in a Datapocolypse from Roamz App on Vimeo.

I recently moderated a panel at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco along with Roamz CEO Jonathan Barouch, Nick Bilton (New York Times) and Brady Forrest (Chair for O’Reilly’s Where 2.0 conference) talking location, smart technologies and the future of web based technology.

No related posts.

Hangouts are at least 75% more fun when you bring animals into the mix.

But seriously, I’ve been spending a lot of time with Google+ over the past few days, and I’m really enjoying it. I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed by social media recently, but I do like Circles, and the ability to really filter who I share and view content by.

If I don’t blog much anymore, it’s because most of my time is spent managing Twitter, Facebook, and not Google+. Content overload!

No related posts.

Thanks to Ryan from gdgt for being my intrepid guide for this video.

No related posts.

All about about.me from about.me on Vimeo.

I love this video that the About.me team created as an introduction to the service (I’m an advisor to the company). Check out the service, if you haven’t already, and let us know what you think! My profile, which you see in the video, is located here.

No related posts.

I’ve become pretty fascinated with my own DNA lately. While I know a little bit about my background (Irish, Scottish, some sprinklings of various Germanic tribes thrown in for good measure) I’ve always been curious about what I’m made of.

Last year I joined 23andMe, and through testing was able to determine my maternal haplogroup (W1c) and my paternal one as well (R1a1a* — yes, I was able to convince my Dad to spit in a test tube from 3,000 miles away).

All very cool, and which brings me to the photo you see at the top of this post. DNA 11 is a company that makes art based on your own personal DNA. They offered to let me try their service, using my data from 23andMe (though they will send you a kit of their own if you haven’t done one already) to create a QR code portrait containing my ancestry info (maternal line only in this case) called an Ancestry Portrait. This is what you see when you read the QR:

Neat! The portraits aren’t cheap (the one they made for me retails for $440 [Edit: they'll knock off $150 if you bring your own DNA to the table like I did]) but it’s a cool way to have some (extremely) personalized art. I have it hanging in my den of nerddom, and it’s a nice reminder of where I came from.

No related posts.

There’s no shortage of ways to capture video clips these days: smart phones, Flip cameras, dSLRs… they can all take good quality video that can easily be uploaded to YouTube or Facebook to share with your friends and family. The downside? It’s an active process. You have to concentrate on getting the shot you want, instead of actually enjoying the moment you’re trying to capture.

On this episode of Tech Unexpected, I take a look at the Looxcie Wearable Camcorder. It sits on your ear like a Bluetooth headset (which technically, it is), and you can use your iPhone or Android device as a remote control to record and play the videos, and to trim the clips and send them off into the Internet aether once you’re done.

Is this something you would want to use? What would you use it to capture? I can also see it being very useful to record concerts or sporting events. At $199, is this something you would integrate into your tech collection?

If you do get one, show it off! Just take a video with your Looxcie camera, upload it to YouTube and tweet us the link to @Cruzearati with the hashtag #LooxcieHere.

Oh, and P.S: When I told Devo she could be internet famous “too,” I was referring to her becoming famous like Mr. Littlejeans. He’s extremely famous on the internet.

Related posts:

1. LG Speed Texting World Cup
2. My stop at TechShop!
3. The Amazing Brooklyn Mobile

One thing makes traveling a cinch for me: technology. There are a few essential apps and tools that I use daily that make life so much easier for me. Without them, I’d be utterly and completely lost.

TripIt
I use TripIt for everything. Flights, hotels, rental cars, car services, etc. If there’s a confirmation email associated with my trip, it gets forwarded to plans@TripIt.com and instantly added to my itinerary. Then, I just pull up the information on my iPhone, and I’ll never forget where the hotel is or what flight number I’m on. I use the Pro account (which has a $60 yearly fee) to keep track of all my frequent flier miles and to alert me to any changes in my itinerary.

FlightTrack Pro
This $9.99 iPhone app works with data from TripIt Pro, and has saved my ass more times than I can count. I typically know a flight is delayed or cancelled before the crew does (well… It seems that way, anyhow). I can use it to cross-reference SeatGuru, find alternate flights, and give me up-to-the-second gate information. A must-have for the frequent traveler.

Expensify
This handy app works on the iPhone and iPad, and allows me to put together expense reports quickly and easily. Using my iPhone, I can take pictures of my receipts, add them to a new or existing expense report, and mail them off to their intended recipient. The only downside is that you need a data connection to work on your reports.

TaxiMagic and Uber
Need a ride to the airport, but don’t know the local cab companies? Try TaxiMagic. In some places, like SF, you can book and pay for Luxor Cabs using the app directly. Otherwise, it lists the local cab companies in your area and helps you to call them from the app. Uber is only available in SF (AFAIK) but this town car booking system is the most reliable and comfortable way to travel. It’s more spendy, at 1.5x the price of normal cabs, but sometimes it’s worth it!

Dropbox and EverNote
I use these apps to sync my data across multiple devices, but I use them differently. Dropbox is mainly for sharing documents (in my case, VO files and scripts) while Evernote I use to keep track of ideas and business cards when I’m on the road. It’s my virtual Rolodex! Instead of taking cards, I snap a photo and upload it to my business cards notebook. Then, once it’s indexed, I can search and access that info from anywhere. 

MyLink from OnStar
If I feel like maybe I forgot to lock my car after leaving it at the airport, I use the OnStar app to remotely lock Terry Cruze. You can also see the cars specs, remotely turn it on and off, and get roadside assistance. Now, if only they had an app for turning off the oven…

3G iPad 
First I felt kind of guilty buying the 3G version. Then I felt even more guilty paying the $14.99 a month data plan. But after two months of using it, I don’t feel that way anymore! You’d be amazed by how many hotels still charge an arm and a leg for Wifi, and how many coffee shops don’t offer it at all anymore. This 3G tablet has been great for emailing and blogging on the go. Also, it means I don’t have to lug my laptop around, which is a big plus. I actually wrote this post on my iPad on the way home from Portland last night.

Kindle 2
Yes! Even with the iPad, I insist on bringing the Kindle with me on every trip. Why, you ask? The battery life is forever, the screen is much easier to look at after long periods, and it’s smaller. 

What are your travel essentials? Anything you can’t live without when you’re on the road?

No related posts.

These guys have worked on some of my favorite games of all time, including LittleBigPlanet and Fable II, so they know a thing or two about creating some very addictive content. The “game” looks great, and has a quirky vibe that’ll definitely set it apart from other task managers.

Since you decide how many points you assign to each task, you can level up pretty quickly. Although I was hoping that there’d be some social aspects (competing against roommates for chore completion, etc) I can see how someone could easily cheat by creating easy tasks with high point values.

There’s one thing keeping me from using this app everyday: desktop integration. I currently use Things as my main to-do list manager, and it syncs with the Things iPhone app as well. I don’t really need two task managing applications on my phone at one time, and there’s very little incentive for a desktop client to use another company’s app for mobile use instead of developing their own.

The answer? EpicWin should create a full-featured RPG for the desktop that plays like a game! Yes, perhaps a little “pie in the sky,” but it would certainly hook more gamers.

EpicWin is $2.99 on the App Store.

No related posts.

Revision3 (where we produce Tekzilla) just announced a new show called AppJudgment, which also covers BlackBerry, Android and Palm Pre applications alongside the more familiar iPhone apps. Here’s the most recent episode:

My friends Scott Johnson and Eric Skyhawk have also launched a new podcast called AppSlappy, which is quickly making it’s way up the iTunes charts. They cover what’s new in the App Store, hot deals of the week, and also give us their take on what apps they’ve been using lately.

Last but not least, Sean Bonner (along with a huge cast of well-known names in new media) is hosting a new show called iPhun. It’s honest, quick-paced, and sarcastically funny in the best way. They also have more in-depth written reviews on the blog, so check that out as well.

On a slightly different note, fellow Emerson alum Jared DiDomenico has a music project called Nuclear O’ Reilly with his friend Brad Naprixas, and they created their new album entirely on the iPhone application Beatmaker (iTunes link) by Intua Software. It’s called, very appropriately, Phoning It In. Worth a listen just to hear how much effort went into it, but it’s pretty damn catchy as well. Here’s their “making of” video:

As applications (and the iPhone itself) become more advanced, users will continue to find new ways to be creative with them. Time for me to go download some new ones!

Related posts:

1. Talking iPhone 3G S on CNN.com
2. A little iPhone organization would be nice
3. Apple in the handheld gaming world

As an app junky and frequent traveler, I was excited by the glowing recommendation given to me by a cab driver one morning:

So I downloaded it, opened up a RideCharge account, and decided to give it a try the next time I had a non-vital (read: not late for an airplane) cab trip to reserve. The application works by finding the nearest cab to your location and sending your request directly to their dispatch computer. You then authorize payment via the app as well, which should immediately show up on the cabs computer system as soon as it goes through.

Everything went really great with the scheduling part: I opened the app, picked a cab service nearby, and they were at my door within 5 minutes. Plus, TaxiMagic (iTunes link) gave me live updates on screen, showing me the drivers name and cab number.

But we reach the FAIL portion of the story when it came time to pay. After punching in the amount and hitting “Pay,” nothing happened. We sat there for 10 minutes as the payment tried to go through, but it never came up on his computer, nor did I receive any kind of confirmation on the app screen. Luckily the driver was a total sweetheart, and accepted the few dollars I had in my pocket (which I was going to use for the tip) for his trouble. Naturally, I felt like a total ass. The worst part was that there wasn’t even a number I could call or a support link that I could find within the app; at least, not one that was immediately apparent in my time of need.

Another 10 minutes went by, and I decide to try paying again. The app told me that too much time had passed since my ride, and still wouldn’t give the cab company my money. It wasn’t for another 24 hours or so that I received an email receipt for my total. I guess I should feel lucky that they didn’t charge me for my multiple attempts at paying!

I guess there’s a pretty obvious moral to this story: technology is a wonderful thing, but always have a backup plan. I probably could also lay some of the blame on AT&T, which could have been part of the problem considering how terrible the 3G coverage is in San Francisco (ironic, I know). But either way, I won’t be using TaxiMagic again without some cold, hard cash on me, which kind of defeats the whole “convenient paying” aspect.

If you have any similar technology anecdotes to share, please leave them in the comments!

No related posts.

I’ll be judging the Boxee Dev Challenge along with my friends Cali Lewis, Chris Pirillo and Boxee CEO Avner Ronen. Here are the details:

the new boxee API enables developers to build and publish apps for boxee users. while people are working on a variety of boxee apps, we thought it would be a good idea to provide some extra incentive for the developers.

the boxee dev challenge will have 3 categories: Video, Music and Photos.
in each category we will have a People’s Choice award and a Judge’s Choice award:

People’s Choice Award: Drobo + 4TB from Seagate
Judge’s Choice Award: Sony Bravia XBR9 46″

the deadline for submitting your application is June 14th at 11:59pm PT, but we encourage you to submit early and often as we’ll be talking up cool applications as they come in.
voting will take place between June 15th – June 22nd.

on June 23rd will have a boxee event in San Francisco (RSVP here) announcing the People’s Choice and our esteemed judges will choose a winner from the 10 most popular apps in each category.

Looking for more info on how to develop boxee apps: check out http://developer.boxee.tv and take a look at the sample app (we will publish additional sample apps). please submit your app to dev_challenge@boxee.tv.

I’m excited to see what apps you guys come up with! Good luck!

No related posts.

Last week my brand new Kindle 2 arrived, and for the past few days I’ve been blissfully downloading books and reading them every chance I get. Then, I started seeing reports of a rumored new Kindle, and I became nervous: “A new one? Already? But the Kindle 2 just came out in February! Who would do such a thing?”

When the announcement of the Kindle DX happened on Wednesday, I was besieged with Twitter messages asking if I was pissed that I just paid $359 for a brand new Kindle 2 when Amazon released a new one that next week. Instantly, my mind went into defensive mode: “No, of course not! This one is huge, and more expensive! I don’t even read textbooks!” But a the same time, the early-adopter bug was chittering in my ear that I now owned an inferior product. Lets take a look at this handy graph on Amazon:

OK, so it has its pros: PDF support without conversion and the rotating display would be pretty sweet, plus the larger display. But are those features really worth the uptick in price, which I already believe to be quite inflated? Not for me!

Side note: I talked a lot of smack about e-book readers on the iPhone on last weeks TWiT, but I’ve had a change in heart. While it still hurts my eyes after a while, the Kindle iPhone app (iTunes link here) is really cool. I read almost an entire book on it yesterday while I was between takes at a video shoot, and it was great.

No related posts.

I can’t find much more information about the creator of the video (YouTube user svdomer09) but I like the way he thinks! A lot of people would say that it’s already easy to drag and sort apps on the iPhone or iPod touch interface, but being able to do that on the computer seems like it would be a major timesaver for someone with pages of applications.

Related posts:

1. A little iPhone organization would be nice
2. Talking iPhone 3G S on CNN.com
3. Droid SMS alert on the iPhone

Last winter, the world was saddened to learn of the demise of the instant film produced by the Polaroid Corporation, which filed for bankruptcy. In spite of a resurgence of popularity by hipsters and fans (read: everyone) of the Outkast song “Hey Ya!” digital cameras have taken over the market, and people just weren’t buying Polaroid devices like they used to.

Luckily, the Poladroid project has stepped in to fill that void. The software app enables you to drag digital photos into the “camera,” which then “develops” the photos with a Polaroid-like finish. And unlike the real Polaroids, shaking the image as it develops actually has an effect! Or simply leave it alone, and watch as it slowly develops. Like a true Polaroid cartridge, you can only process ten images at a time (how quaint!).

The site has also started a Flickr group, where users post their newly-retroized images and share their feelings about the app. Currently, Poladroid beta is only available for OS X, though it appears that a Windows version is in the works. Now they just need to let you scribble on the film as it develops to leave your signature on the image, just like old times.

No related posts.

I was listening to the gdgt roundtable this morning, and they started talking about the iPhone / iPod Touch as a gaming device. Josh Topolsky insisted that Apple was trying to drink Sony and Nintendo’s milkshakes, while Ryan said that Apple is just going for the “value add” of having games.

This got me thinking about my iPhone and the experiences I’ve had using it as a handheld gaming device, especially compared with the Nintendo DS and the PSP. Granted, gaming on my phone has not been my number one priority, but I’ve download a few decent ones: Spore Origins, Tris (which I believe is now unavailable) and Tap Tap Revenge. But at the end of the day, was it more fun for me to play games on my iPhone than if I’d brought along the DS or PSP? Well, no, not especially. Was it more convenient to not have to carry a second device? Of course. Yet the overall experience quality is still going to be better on a standalone gaming platform. I just wonder if people really care all that much about having the absolute best experience… maybe they just don’t need it.

This brings me to another point on the podcast: do mainstream users really care about the nit-pickings of technologists when it comes to their buying decisions? Yes, there can definitely be a trickle effect of opinion that can sway people (“Oh, I’ve heard this phone is very buggy, I’m going to wait for the next version”). But what about mainstream gamers? Are games on the iPod/iPhone ever going to effect the number of handheld devices being purchased, and the amount they’re used? Is it just a nice added benefit to the phone, or a major selling point?

Developers are cranking out some beautiful looking games for the App Store, and I’m sure they’re enjoying the direct-to-buyer system (that is, if their app makes it through the approval process), but I wonder what other frequent gamers are thinking.

Do you think people will eventually buy the iPod or iPhone with the primary function of being their gaming device?

Image courtesy of Apple.com

Related posts:

1. Culture of the Apps
2. A little iPhone organization would be nice
3. The iPhone app organizer I would love to see

I’m not good with keeping up with my feeds. In Google Reader, I hit the “(1000+)” mark in all my categories a long time ago (this, of course, fluctuates depending on the amount of free time I have on any given day). The pure fear and annoyance of going through everything is a major road block for me, as is the defeat of hitting “Mark all as Read.” Upon bringing my feeds into Feedly, I immediately enjoyed the magazine view:

Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!

It’s a great way to get an instant snapshot of all the newest updates. Clicking on a feed item opens it up in the Feedly page, much like reading an item in Google Reader. You can recommend the article (which I believe shares it in gReader as well) or send it to one of your social networking sites. Happily, you can also use keyboard shortcuts to jump between items and initiate other actions.

Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!

But hey, this service has been out for a while, and there are many good reviews on it, but I wanted to give them a fair shake now that they’ve address the major problem I had with them. I’ll probably still use Google Reader for when I need to power through my gaming and tech feeds, but Feedly makes discovering content in my feeds that I may have missed a breeze. For now, I’ve made Feedly my new start page in FF3, replacing iGoogle. We’ll see if it can remain an integral part of my daily online experience!

No related posts.

I made a Friendfeed post a while ago about this, and then I realized that microblogging is sucking whatever ideas I have for blog posts right out of my head and turning them into one-sentence blips in the social-networking ether…

Anyhow.

The iPhone interface is intuitive. However, this does not mean that it’s practical, especially when you have numerous icons to keep track of. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were an interface for organizing your iPhone apps? You could decide which menu page your apps showed up on, or even separate them by type or alphabetically. It’s just a total pain that every single time your apps update (at least when you do it from the actual phone) that it dumps the updated apps to the very last page in the iPhone interface. Why don’t they just stay where I told them to go? Why do I have to manually drag them back to where they belong? That method is touch-and-go (heh!) at best anyhow — if you don’t get it just right, the icon just hangs on the edge of the screen, waiting to move to the next page.

Actually, it really would make sense to just build this directly into iTunes. We can already see all the apps that are installed on the Applications page. Why isn’t there some kind of sorting method right there?

And while we’re at it, how about trial periods for apps? I recently purchased Super Monkey Ball for $9.99, and it’s the most annoying game I’ve ever paid money for. I totally have buyer’s remorse. If developers could add a time limit into the DRM wrapper on the app, then it could turn itself off after a certain pre-determined trial period ended. I’m not an app developer, obviously, but this seems more viable than giving your app away for free for an amount of time and then suddenly charging all new customers for it.

Finally, while we’re on the subject of iPhones, my “iPhone Cubism” pool on Flickr has actually gotten some good coverage lately! We’re on TUAW, Valleywag and iPhone Savior (which, I learned, is 100% zombie proof. Nice work!). So if you’ve had an artful glitch on your iPhone, add it to the pool.

(Sorry about the dry spell here on the blog! I honestly think Twitter is killing my blogging… slowly, but surely.)

Related posts:

1. The iPhone app organizer I would love to see
2. Talking iPhone 3G S on CNN.com
3. Droid SMS alert on the iPhone

(FREE) The one thing I’ve desperately wanted out of my iPhone was a chat client that worked on a non-jailbroken phone. I couldn’t find an app that would work like Adium or Trillian, which would cover all your bases in terms of chat. If you’ve come across one, let me know! However, the AIM app works really well so far, even if it’s missing some of the iChat sleekness. UPDATE: However, as Dave Zatz points out you cannot run apps in the background, which makes running an IM client a little more annoying.

(FREE) In lieu of purchasing an Amazon Kindle like I’ve been considering, I took the advice of many to wait for an eReader for the iPhone. Here’s the first incarnation of one that I’ve come across. You can download hundreds of books from sources like eReader.com and FictionWise.com, although I’d still rather have a larger screen for reading if it were for an extended period. My eyes are strained enough as it is! The page flipping is very cool, and I feel like I’m going to get a lot of use out of it.

(FREE) Math? Not so much my specialty, especially when it’s a large group and there’s check-splitting involved. There are serveral web-based apps for iPhone, but this one will come in handy at my favorite restaurant in town that for some reason never has cell reception. The interface is just about as simple as you can get, which will help expedite the paying process.

(FREE) Midomi is a wonderful little app for figuring out that song that’s been stuck in your head for days. Either sing a clip, or type in the few words you remember, and the app will bring up some matches. You can then purchase the tunes or watch them on YouTube. Folks on my FriendFeed are saying that Shazam‘s app works faster and more reliably, but I haven’t given it a shot yet myself.

($2.99) The one app that I’ve actually spent money on is MobileFlickr. I’ve made good use of the dedicated Flickr email for sending in photos from my phone, but this has a lot more obvious functionality built in. You can so just about everything on the mobile version that you can accomplish on the web, short of editing and organizing.

It seems that most of the big names have apps ready to go, like eBay, Twitterific and MySpace. There’s a good number of free ones to choose from already, and while I’d be hard-pressed to spend $9.99 on an iPhone application, the Lonely Planet Japanese Phrasebook does seem pretty tempting!

No related posts.

The folks over at Qik were kind enough to outfit me with a Nokia N95, so I could test out their service. I’ve been quasi-resistant to lifecasting of any kind, for a few reasons:

1. My days are typically very boring.
2. I feel bad shoving a camera into people’s faces and streaming them.
3. You wouldn’t like me anymore if you knew just how frequently I speak to my cats.

Jason and Scoble seem to find no end to the things they want to share with the Qik (and by proxy, Twitter communities), but I find myself hesitant to turn on the camera. After some brainstorming, here are some applications that I could see Qik being useful for:

1. Clothes shopping — If I’m out shopping, and I can’t decide which shirt or shoes to pick, why not let the live audience help? I mean, they’re the ones that have to look at the outfit on camera later anyway, right?
2. Company on public transportation — As if there aren’t enough crazies on SF Muni, let’s add one more (me) talking AT my phone (instead of on it) during my commute.
3. Instant support group — If one of my girlfriends is having man trouble, it would be nice to have another hundred or so people to back me up at any given moment to say “Dump the loser!”

I’m only half kidding on some of those. What value do you guys get out of lifecasting? Why is it so popular? Maybe because it’s like reality TV, but without all the convinient editing? I’ve tried a few other services, and none of them have been compelling enough for me to continue to use them. The mobility factor with Qik is a definite plus, so maybe that will help.

No related posts.

I noticed today that Thomas Hawk (and later TechCrunch) are writing about a service called TagCow, which apparently can tag large batches of photos at a time. Anyone who takes a lot of pictures can attest to the immense annoyance of tagging tons of photos, especially when you want to be very specific about them. Sure, you can batch tag when you upload, but then you still have to go back and add whatever other tags are needed depending on the individual photo (like batch tagging all my SXSW photos “sxsw” “austin” “conference” and then going back and adding someone’s name, etc). Pain in the butt, right? Some people (like Tantek) bow to the wisdom of crowds and simply add a “needs tags” note to the photos, but it would be nice to have a service or program that could actually recognize the content of the photo and do it for you.

Is TagCow that much-needed service? Thomas seems to think so, although he admits that he’s not quite sure how the technology works. TechCrunch says that it’s got to be people actually viewing each photo and giving it the appropriate tags, although how someone could go through that many photos is beyond me (says the girl who works for a “people-powered search engine“). Arrington says:

The answer is, humans do it. I note that the TagCow site is careful not to say anything about the tagging process, and never use the word “automated” or anything else that would suggests computers are doing the work. Munjal Shah, the founder of Riya/Like, agreed, noting that it recognized a witch in Thomas’ photo – he says this just isn’t something a computer can do today.

But this makes me concerned about privacy. If I’m uploading 200 photos from my vacation, do I really want a bunch of dudes sitting around an office picking apart each one? No, obviously not. Therefore, I probably wouldn’t use the service. However, since TagCow is being a little vague about how everything works, I’m worried that people will walk into a situation where their privacy could be at stake. Does TagCow keep copies of the photos you send them? Do they live on some server there, even though you’re only tagging them for, say, your personal collection (as opposed to being on Flickr or Zooomr)? TC also writes:

And the business is definitely a little sketchy. Worried about the privacy of your data? Just don’t click on their Privacy Policy or Terms of Use: “Privacy policy is TBD.” and “Legal stuff TBD.” Not exactly a way to build confidence.

Yikes. Anyhow, I’m aware that I’m putting on my tinfoil hat a little early, considering we hardly know anything about TagCow. It could be the answer to our tagging prayers, or it could be a huge privacy-sucking black hole. For now I think I’ll continue adding my metadata by hand.

However, their tagline is hilarious.

No related posts.