Since the iPhone came out, many phones have come out surrounded by speculation that they could be the phone to put Apple’s iPhone out of business. Frankly, I don’t think any phone will do that for a long time, even if it’s better than the iPhone, but it’s certainly nice to see so many step up to the plate. The possibly under-hyped G1 from T-Mobile has secured a strong position in the race to be the perfect smart phone and created a loyal following for the Android platform. Palm joined in with the over-hyped Pre, which has plenty of its own merits, but hasn’t seemed to live up to all the marketing. Now we have yet another contender, that seems to have appeared from out of nowhere just recently.
Meet Droid
They say a picture is worth a thousand words and we all know how important design is in choosing a new phone. I got my hands on some high resolution photos from Verizon.
(Click any of the images for the high res versions)
PhoneScoop.com uploaded an unboxing video below. It’s just a glimpse, but it’s good to hear some opinions on how the phone feels to use. It makes a great point about the keyboard being so flat, but other than that, it looks great:
Better still, check out Gizmodo’s review for a video that shows how fast this thing is.
It’ll be feature rich
According to Verizon’s very nicely done marketing campaign, Droid Does. Verizon is pretty much saying that Droid does everything that the iPhone (and many others) do not. The commercials are centered around this and although the phone doesn’t have all the smooth curves the iPhone has, it already looks better than the G1, runs on the growing Android platform, and promises to deliver many of the missing some iPhone users have been asking about for the past couple years. Here’s some of the features it boasts that stand out to me:
- DVD quality video
- Speech recognition
- Augmented reality
- Multitasking
- Physical AND software keyboards
- 3.7 inch display (854×480 WVGA)
- 5MP camera with flash
- Intelligent dock
- Android 2.0 (open development, baby)
- Multitouch
- Replaceable battery
- Facebook integration
- It’s fast
I’m trying to get my hands on one for a real review, but so far it looks like it’s living up to the hype. What do you think from what you’ve seen so far? Is this your next phone? If it is, what phone will you be getting rid of for Droid?
I love electronics. The problem is that they all suck up electricity like mad. There was a time when I would have several computers running all through the night. These days, I’m much more aware of energy concerns and try to be more responsible with my usage. Having a huge electric bill is no fun either. That’s why I was pleased to get this little device in the mail.
Vampire Power
The TV TrickleSaver from TrickleStar is a little device that sits between your TV and its power source to stop it from slowly using power throughout the night when it would normally be in standby mode. This standby power is also called vampire power because your devices sit there all night sucking up power. The goal is to stop those power-sucking devices, be more green, and put a little green back in your pocket. But does it work?
Installing TV TrickleSaver
I really shouldn’t use that word, installing. You don’t install a TrickleSaver any more than you would install your dirty laundry in the washer. You just plug the TrickleSaver into the wall (or surge protector in my case) and then plug your TV into the TrickleSaver. It also has a secondary (“slave”) outlet for plugging in an accessory device like a game system or DVD/VCR/Bluray player. On the end opposite the power outputs they’ve placed the Trimmer, which adjusts the threshold (watts of the master device) at which devices switch on and off. The instructions point out a couple very important things. First, you probably don’t need to mess with the Trimmer. It tells you to just try it out first and see if it works at its current setting, and it did for me. This is a big plus because most people don’t want to have to figure out wattage and experiment. If it doesn’t work right off the bat, you can just adjust and test. The second important setup note is about what devices to use with it. Of course, you want toplug in your TV, but which of your accessories? It warns against plugging in devices with hard drives in them. I’d worry that it would interrupt nighttime recording of shows on my DVR, anyway, so I left the DVR alone. I would suggest plugging in some other accessory as the slave. Once everything is plugged in, your done.
My experiences
As a test, I hooked up my TV and XBox. Unfortunately, I don’t have a meter to watch the electricity usage change on the spot, but my TV is relatively new, so it has a power button that is always lit up. It’s as if it’s constantly reminding me of my power consumption. I set it all up and turned off the TV and off went the power switch light, too. Great. So it works, but what about the hassle of having that in the way and installing? As I mentioned above, the setup is pretty simple, so that’s not a problem for me. It’s doesn’t really get in the way, either. It has a couple mounting holes on the back, so you could put a couple screws in the wall and mount it if you want. Personally, I don’t like to mount stuff any more than necessary. I prefer to just let it sit behind everything else. It’s not tiny, but it’s not so big that it can’t be tucked behind your A/V components.
Being and saving green
This is all about being green for the environment and saving a few bucks while you’re at it. Even the packaging says “Save Electricity. Save $$$. Save Earth.”(tm). I’m sure the first thing you want to know is “how much?”. That was my first question. Luckily, they have a handy little savings calculator. I punched in my TV (42″ LCD), and my XBOX. Then it asked how many hours a day my TV is on during the week (6) and on weekends (8) which I entered and the gears started turning. After some calculation, TrickleStar says I’ll save 1198 kWh and 789 kg CO2 per year. Not bad, but what about my wallet? Here’s the part that surprised me a bit. It says I’ll save almost $180 a year. Of course, that depends on my energy costs from my provider, but even if that’s off by a little, that’s great for a device that costs just under $20.
Conclusions
This was one of those devices that left me checking the site for similar products. I am contemplating picking up another one for the other TV for another $100 or so a year in savings. Paying around $20 once to save upwards of $100 a year is a no-brainer and it helps you be more green. If you’re looking to lower your carbon footprint and your electric bill at the same time, this is a great way to do it.
It’s that time of year again. The BlogWorld Expo has once again come and gone, and once again, it was a rewarding experience.
Last year, Michelle and I found ourselves in the presence of some of the top bloggers at a dinner thrown by Market Leverage. Unfortunately, we were unable to make it to the dinner this year as we had so much going on. In fact, we missed out on a few things, but the weekend was still productive and a lot of fun.
Thursday night, we attended the TechSet party at The Bank night club in the Bellagio hotel. Budweiser sponsored free beers for a while, which was nice because the drinks were expensive. After a couple hours, the club kicked us all off the tables to open up table service, which cost anywhere from $750 up to $25,000, so we bailed. Before we left, however, we got up and danced (which I almost never do), and I was able to surprise NikNik and Reggie from MyTechOpinion.com. I guess I didn’t tell NikNik I was able to make it out after all, because the look on her face was priceless. Sadly, I didn’t really get a minute to stop and chat with them after that.
Friday morning, Michelle and I met Krystyl on the way into breakfast. She’s a social queen who I meant to meet last year and never did. I also met Brett Bumeter from Softduit Media on the way from the Hilton to the conference and enjoyed our chats on the walk over and at the exhibitors hall. I got to see online business consultant, Jim Kukral again and finally got to meet Drew from BenSpark.com. I spent some time running around the hall, engaging in discussion with the various vendors, and I started by finally meeting Ashley Edwards from IZEA. There were several companies that I became familiar with last year and some new stuff, but there were really just a couple things I found exiting that were actually new to me.
After a little relaxing back at the hotel, Michelle and I headed to an early anniversary dinner at the Benihana Japanese steakhouse in the Hilton. It’s a bit pricey for a steak dinner, but the quality of the food was comparable to what I’d find here for the same $50/plate or so. The real reason we went was for the experience. You sit at a table with 5 or 6 strangers and the chef prepares the food in front of you. The chefs do a good job of entertaining the whole time, too. It’s half cooking and half juggling. After dinner, we headed to see the Cirque du Soleil show, KÀ, which was just amazing. The tickets were given to me in order for me to provide an honest review of it, but it will cost me because now Michelle and I are eager to go back and see the other shows.
Saturday, I headed back over to see the opening keynote, which was a celebrity-filled panel on how celebs use Twitter, essentially. It included Anthony Edwards (ER, Revenge of the Nerds), Jermaine Dupri (music mogul), Robin Antin (Pussycat Dolls), and Matt Goss (who I hadn’t heard of). Planned but cancelled was Soleil Moon Frye (Punky Brewster) and the panel was moderated pretty well by Brian Solis. Jermaine Dupri came off as a jerk, but a lot of what he said made sense, too. I think it was just how he came across as if he were the only one who mattered that bugged me. Anthony Edwards was full of analogies and was really polite and had some important points, too, as did Matt Goss. Robin Antin didn’t seem to bring much original perspective or anything really thought-provoking to the conversation. There were some differing opinions on exactly how much you should be sharing on Twitter and on how much you should really interact with fans. In all, though, it gave me some things to think about and it changed my idea of celebrity tweeters a little. It made me feel a little more open to trying to connect with someone regardless of their celebrity status. Anthony Edwards also took a moment to send out his very first Tweet in front of us, which I thought was pretty cool.
After the keynote, I saw John Chow for the first time of the weekend, so I walked over to say hello and he noticed that the IZEA booth was empty, so we decided to take it over. I swear John Chow has all the good off-the-cuff ideas. Last year, he had a contest to give away MarketLeverage’s money and I joined in. This year, taking over IZEA was a blast and I think we did a good job, too. A little confusion about when Ashley and Ted Murphy (IZEA CEO) were supposed to be there led to a test of how much John and I knew about IZEA and its Social Spark, SponsoredTweets, and Sponzai. Eventually, a stunned (but laughing) Ashley and Ted showed up and I got to meet Ted for the first time. There was so much interest in the IZEA booth at the time (mostly from John stealing people from other booths) that even after Ted and Ashley showed up, John and I continued to field questions to help with all the overflow. What antics will John and I get into next year, I wonder.
Saturday evening was reserved for a visit with Amy, a friend of Michelle’s that she hadn’t seen in years. She and her husband, Greg, have been living in Las Vegas, so we headed over and had a good visit with them and then headed home Sunday.
If you’re a blogger and serious about it at all, you need to be at BlogWorld. If not for all the sessions, you need to go just to connect in person with people who you’ve been interfacing with online and meet new people. I was pleased to finally meet several people I’d wanted to meed for a long time and enjoyed meeting lots of new people who I hope to continue to connect with online. Next year, I think I’ll plan for all the sessions again. I skipped them this year and although I probably wouldn’t have made it to many of them due to time constraints this year, I still feel like I missed out on some valuable information and interaction. For those who didn’t go, be sure to next year and find me and say hello.
I always wanted to see a Cirque du Soleil show, so when I was presented with an opportunity to review KÀ in Las Vegas, I agreed eagerly. You see, I had heard for years about how great the Cirque shows were, but never found myself attending. Michelle and went to see about attending a show last year, but everything was sold out. I knew I was missing a good show, but never knew just how good the show is until this weekend.
Seating and tickets
When purchasing tickets for any show, I always want to know where the best seats are and how much they cost. As soon as I found out that we were near the rear center of section 102, I looked it up to see how good those seats were.
Adult tickets run from $69 to about $150 for adults and about half that for children. The pricing depends on the seating category. Being where we were, I figured our view would be pretty much in the middle of the scale from worst seats to best seats. When we got there, I realized that these were pretty great seats. Although they were definitely not front row or the best seats in the house, the view was great. In fact, it looked like all the seats had a pretty good view, with the possible exception of the far edges on the left and right. Every seat has speakers in the head rest, which sounds more like you’re just in the sweet spot for the sound rather than that you have speakers right behind your head and some cast members wander around through and interact with the audience. Wherever you’re seated, it seems you’ll be pretty immersed in the experience.
Photos and video
If you want photos or video, you’ll want to look at the KÀ web site because you can’t use your camera in the show. I asked about this before attending, as you should with any show you plan to bring a camera to and I was told that there’s a pretty strict policy against the use of cameras in Cirque shows. When we got our tickets, “No cameras” on the ticket, itself, reminded us about this rule and we saw signs when we arrived that served to make sure people know about the camera rules. Still, amazingly, a lot of people were taking photos before the show began and the show staff were quick to politely remind these people of the rules. Just to bring the point home, they had a small theatrical example before the full show of why not to use your camera. So how do you get a lasting memory of that special occasion with a friend or loved one? The offer some professional photography before the show.
While we waited for everyone to arrive and be seated, photographers from Cashman wandered around to take photos of those who wanted it. We had ours taken by Jeremy and after the show we decided to purchase the album shown above out of the two he presented us. It came bound nicely and the photos are professional quality (though I think they were just a bit bright). At $44 each, the album has two photos in it and is great to have, but not something I would get every visit to Cirque. My wife and I were out celebrating our wedding anniversary and made KÀ a part of it, so we purchased one.
The show
I had my choice of a few of the Cirque shows and I opted for KÀ because it looked best suited to my tastes. There’s plenty to choose from, so if KÀ isn’t your cup of tea, there may be another show that is, like Mystere, O, Zumanity, The Beatles Love, and Chris Angel Believe. Right now, they’re celebrating their 25th anniversary with some cool promotions and breaks on ticket pricing. We made sure to grab a drink in a souvenir cup while there. Before we were even seated, the experience had begun. The atmosphere was incredible, from the ushers in full costume to the scenery that enveloped the whole theater, the mood was set right away for a majestic evening. I was already a little impressed and my wife was excited for the show to begin.
The detail in the set design was incredible, and that’s an understatement. There wasn’t a traditional stage, but rather a stage area where a stage could rise up, rotate, elevate, etc. Surrounding the stage was a several stories of almost scaffolding-like but very decorative platforms on which many of the actors played out their roles. From a technical standpoint, the stage was a marvel. It spun in many directions and any side or corner could be elevated to as much as 90 degrees to help create the array of amazing effects that Cirque shows are famous for. The stage also included lower platforms, trap doors, and posts that rise out from the surface, all to add to the effect and provide function for the actors. As a geek with a love for unique engineering, I was pretty excited about the stage, but it still couldn’t detract from my amazement at the show itself. The video below should give an idea of what to expect, but really doesn’t do it justice.
Around every corner, I was in awe of the flawless execution of every stunt or acrobatic feat performed and I was moved by the beauty of the show as a whole. From impressive baton twirling to airborne acrobatics, the actors in this show are truly a collection of talent that I’ve not seen anywhere before. That of course, is not to discount the talent of those behind the scenes, as well. The creative affects with video, lighting, smoke and fire as well as the larger-than-life puppets continued to keep me immersed in the show.
Words like spectacular, amazing and incredible really fall short of conveying how I felt when it was over. I remember not wanting it to end and wondering when I could get to the next Cirque show. I think this show could be enjoyed from any seat in the house, but I would definitely shoot for somewhere in the middle of section 102 as that’s a pretty good area to get the whole experience without having to be too close to too far. Is it worth the cost? Definitely. I would have liked the option for a $10 or $15 photo in a cardboard sleeve that I could frame myself, but the show itself is a masterpiece and well worth the price of admission. Cirque is now in my travel budget for my next trip to Las Vegas and should be in yours, too.
