Joe Tech » Music

How To Animate Christmas Lights To Music

Joe Tech — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 09:23:59 +0000

Every year, I love to check out all the Christmas light displays that every day people put their hearts into to display their Christmas spirit. In recent years, videos of Christmas lights animated to musical accompaniment have been popping up on YouTube. Some are fun and others can only be described as artistic genius. This year, my wife and I happened upon a house that featured, among other things, Christmas lights that jumped and danced in time with the music. While I had a general idea of how it was done, I decided to dig a little deeper and share some of what I learned with you. I also created a video containing a mix of these musical lights to give you a better idea of what I’m talking about. Watch the video below and then we’ll get into how it’s done.

How To Program Christmas Lights To Music

Getting your lights to dance to pre-determined music is pretty simple in concept, but will take some amount of learning for anyone new to it and a lot of time for just about anyone. That may sound discouraging, but the end result may well be worth all the trouble. Not only will you have the feeling of accomplishing something pretty cool, but you’ll have the coolest decorated house on the block and perhaps even a YouTube hit like the Skrillex Equinox display that was viewed over a million times in under three weeks.

Before you dive in and create your masterpiece, you’ll need a general idea of what’s involved. First, you’ll need to have some hardware and software to make the magic happen. The hardware (controller, etc.) will connect your lights to the computer that will run the show and the software will allow you to program the lights to react to music how you want them to. Software won’t be a problem for your budget, but hardware can cost anywhere from around $160 for 32 channels and more of a DIY, hands-on approach up to $1,200 or more for 64 channels and a lot less work. If you’re comfortable with soldering, you can spend less and do a lot of the work, but if you’re not, expect to pay a lot more for pre-built hardware. In addition to the hardware, you should be prepared to spend money on lights if you don’t have them already. The days right after Christmas usually reveal lots of great sales (that’s when I buy wrapping paper and accessories, too). And don’t forget your soon-to-be-bloated electric bill.

To get it all working, you just need to :
- Check with neighbors first
- Get your hardware and software (including lights)
- Design your display and plan what you want
- Program your show (get ready to spend a lot of time here)
- Test
- Let people know

Of course, there’s a lot more detail to these steps. Wikihow has a summary article, How To Make Your Christmas Lights Flash To Music, including a few software and hardware links, but a much more detailed resource can be found on the doityourselfchristmas.com forums.

Along with all the work involved, you’ll want to plan some things ahead. The last thing you want to do is spend months putting together the perfect Christmas light musical performance only to have something unforeseen prevent it from being displayed. Before you start, check with your neighbors and agree on reasonable start and stop times and dates. Check for any local laws, ordinances, or HOA rules that such a project my be in violation of. Plan your expenses before you buy anything and avoid fire and other hazards by talking to electricians or other experts. Planning ahead may save you a ton of headaches down the road.

When you’re all done, showcase your completed project in style. Collaborate with a local video company to create a professional-looking video and don’t stop at YouTube. Send it to local TV stations and related blogs. A viral video could help offset your December electrical bill.

As always, if you embark on this adventure, share your project here in the comments.

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Win Skull Ear Buds And More From Wicked Audio For Halloween

Joe Tech — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 20:15:13 +0000

I love October. This is the time of year when we get to break out the cob webs and pumpkin carving kits. We get to dress up and eat candy. Halloween is even better, to some people, than Christmas. But let’s not argue about that. Instead, let’s mix in a little Christmas with our Halloween this year. You dress up and eat candy and I’ll give out the gifts.

Thanks to Wicked Audio, we have a couple sets of pretty cool ear buds to hand out, and I’m going to make this one even easier than previous contests. All you need is a Facebook account to enter. Keep reading to find out more, but first let me tell you about what you can win.

Wicked Audio: Wicked Empire
Punk-inspired, noise isolating earbuds cater to a mulitude of personal styles
- Top of the line earbuds feature external design themes for a unique and personalized appearance
- Modern elements ,such as skull and 8 ball figures, allow consumers to promote their individual fashion sense
- High quality chrome finish offers a stylish look and gold-plated tip prevents damage and corrosion
- Available in 5 trendy models: Maiden, Lucky, Knight, Bones and Ace
- 10 mm Driver, 20-20,000 Hz Frequency, 1.2 Meter Cord

Wicked Audio: Wicked Little Buds
Design-forward, noise isolating earbuds provide an edgy look and great sound
- Petite earbuds feature a semi-glossy finish and feature tiny Wicked Logos on the ends of each bud
- Fiber-like cord enhances the aesthetic appeal and gold-plated tip prevents corrosion
- High performance buds provide spectacular noise isolation for an enjoyable listening experience
- Light weight form provides a “barely there” feeling for the ultimate in comfort
- Available in 4 stylish colors: Black, Blue, Purple and Silver
- 5.8 mm Driver, 20-20,000 Hz Frequency, 1.2 Meter Cord

Win Wicked Audio Ear Buds

This will be one of the easiest contests you’ve ever entered. All you have to do to enter is share this post on Facebook. To let me know about your entry, you can add me on Facebook and tag me in your post or you can just send me a link to your post. As long as I can see it, it’ll count. Also, be sure to mention which set you would prefer and a style or color. As a bonus, everyone who commented on my Facebook status announcing that I’d be giving these away got an additional entry. If you weren’t one of those people, be sure to add me and watch for future contests. I’ll pick two winners via a random draw on Monday, October 10, 2011 at 2:00 PM MST.

Just so the fine print doesn’t feel left out… I must be aware of your entry for it to count. Only one entry per person for this contest (except for the bonus entries). Nobody in my immediate family can enter (sorry Mom). Winners will be contacted via Facebook and will have to provide a shipping address to send the prize to. Prize awarded will be based on preference where applicable, but no guarantee can be made that a winner will receive their specified preference. I reserve the right to disqualify any entries from Facebook accounts I deem to be fake.

That’s about it. Enter now and tag friends who you think might want to win these things (who wouldn’t?). Good luck, everyone!

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Google Music Beta – First Impressions

Joe Tech — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 15:03:45 +0000

Today, Google sent me an invitation to Google Music Beta. Until today, I was not a part of the limited number of users allowed in to play around. Launching quietly among all the buzz about Google+ and Google +1, Google Music is yet another attempt by Google to steal a huge user base. This time, Apple is the target.

What Is Google Music?

Google Music is a way to make your music collection available from anywhere you are. Because you upload your music collection to Google Music, it’s on the web for you to access from any computer or Android device. According to Google, it’s “A better way to play your music.”

How Do I Get A Google Music Invite?

When I first saw the Google Music Beta landing page, my first thought was that I wanted to dive in and play around. Of course, it’s in Beta, so they are limiting who can get in. I signed up to be on the list for an account and just a couple days later, I received my invitation email. Head to http://music.google.com and request an invite. If they open it up by time you read this, you should go right to your music collection to start adding. At the time of this writing, there are no invites being handed out to anyone other than via the invitation request system.

Google Music Features

In its infancy, Google Music Beta has one main feature: Play your music from anywhere. Beyond that, it doesn’t really have any ground-breaking features that are going to change your life. It has playlists, the ability to give a track a thumbs up or thumbs down, listings by song, artist, album or genre, and lots of information about the track. So, yeah. It’s like iTunes on the web.

In my quality time with Music Beta, I did find a few features that I thought stood out a little. While playing music, you can navigate to the next and previous tracks with the left and right arrow keys or use the space bar to play or pause. Additionally, the up and down arrow keys, home and end and even the page up and down help you navigate through the list while the backspace or delete keys will remove a track from your collection.

Google also added context menus to tracks to help you add songs to playlists, buy music, etc. My favorite part is the instant mix which just makes a quick mix playlist from the song you chose and other songs Google thinks compliment it. Finally, like in iTunes, you can select multiple tracks with SHIFT+click or CTRL+click and drag things around to make stuff happen. While testing, I dragged a whole album to a playlist to add it quickly.

To get your music into Google Music, you need to install the desktop application. It finds tracks from a selection of locations (I chose my iTunes library) and works like mad to upload them all. If you want to give it a test run, you can create a folder with a small selection of tracks and just import that or you can do like I did and go for broke. If you have a large collection, like me, you should be prepared to wait and keep in mind the 20,000 track limitation Google currently imposes. Seven hours after starting, only 3,400 tracks from my collection have uploaded. The upside is that it doesn’t choke up your computer’s bandwidth, processor, or memory as it quietly churns away in the background.

What’s Missing?

Social sharing : GrooveShark and Pandora set great examples for music sites with ample social sharing options. Google Music Beta doesn’t even integrate +1 or Google+ sharing, but I’d rather see Facebook and Twitter as a minimum. With the existing APIs, it should be really easy to build in.

International availability : At last check Google Music is available only in the United States. With a project like this, it’s probably just a matter of Google getting all the kinks worked out and then working through any legal barriers for offering a music service in other countries.

More keyboard controls : That there’s keyboard controls at all pleases me, but I kept looking for a way to fast forward or rewind with the keyboard. I’d also love to see shortcuts for common actions like SHIFT+Up Arrow to give a track a thumbs up or ways to add to playlists without the mouse.

While it’s not something I expect Google to take care of, I had a number of tracks that would not import because they had the old DRM ball-and-chain from iTunes. Actually, Music Beta intelligently recognized the DRM tracks, refused to import them, and provided a report about them in the desktop application. You can always burn those tracks to CD, rip them back to your computer, and re-import them without the DRM later.

Early Conclusions

The feature set is a little underwhelming, but the concept is exactly what I want from online music… MY music when and where I want it. Everything worked well, too, but I’ve heard others complain about the user interface. Google is touting it as “free for now”, but with an ad-supported option and some polishing, this will completely replace everything else I use to listen to music.

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Iomoio : Cheap MP3s And Two Free MP3 Downloads For Signing Up

Joe Tech — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 14:02:29 +0000

I had the opportunity this week to check out another site where you can search for and buy mp3 songs on the cheap. At 16 cents a track, iomoio.com is a fraction of other sites, leaving you to ask, “What’s the catch?”

What’s The Catch

The first thing most people wonder about a site offering cheap mp3 music downloads is if it is legal. According to the site’s FAQ, it is. The reason they can offer these tracks for so cheap is because they’re outside the U.S. and have different licensing rules and agreements. Giving your credit card to a site outside the U.S. might make some people nervous, but I didn’t feel that way with iomoio.

Features, Selection, And Quality

Any time I visit a music site that I haven’t been to before, I look for three key components: site features/usability, music selection, and quality of the music being played. I give iomoio.com a 90/100 for features and usability. The site was very easy to sign up and navigate and finding tracks was easy with a comprehensive search that auto-completes for artist, album, and track. In my searches, I found most of what I searched for, and I have an interesting taste in music. Even though it didn’t find one of the tracks I was searching for, it did find a few artists I didn’t expect results for, like Faderhead and Stromkern. Of course, iomoio had plenty of the top artists like Rihanna and Lady Gaga too. I gave iomoio a 95/100 on selection. Out of the 10 tracks I searched for, it found nine, but the site had two out of three albums for the one it didn’t find.

When viewing a list of tracks, you are presented with a play button to preview the track, but the music preview plays about four different parts of the track rather than just the first 30 seconds, providing a better sample of what you’re buying. In addition, the preview lets you skip ahead by clicking the outer ring of the circle. When you purchase, you get to download mp3 songs without any DRM, so you can add them to any of your devices and listen wherever you want.

When a track or album is purchased, it’s placed in your Downloads page, where you can download a .ZIP archive including the song or album. Downloaded tracks included the important track information like album, artist, track number, etc. and are 256k, earning a 100/100 for quality. The tracks I listened to sounded perfect.

As a bonus, when you sign up, you get two free tracks. I give that 100/100.

Conclusions

Like a lot of people in the U.S., I’m a little sensitive about who I give my credit card information to. Being a site in a foreign land may turn people away, but the trade-off is really cheap tracks at great quality with fast downloads. Even if you’re not ready to make a purchase, just head over and pick up a couple free tracks.

Although the preceding was a sponsored review, as always I strive to provide an honest opinion of the product reviewed.

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Finis XtreaMP3 – The Tough Waterproof MP3 Player

Joe Tech — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 13:37:42 +0000

A few weeks ago, I was busy trying to make an old iPod shuffle ready for dirt and water and whatever else might happen to it over the following seven days. As I was devising ways to make an iPod waterproof, the FINIS XtreaMP3 waterproof digital music player arrived for me to review. I dropped my special project to open up the box and see what it was all about.

XtreaMP3 Technical Specs

Often, when I find out something is made to be rugged or, in this case, waterproof, I fear for the loss of traditional features. The first thing I noticed with the XtreaMP3 was the lack of any digital screen to show me a playlist or even what song is playing. I may be a bit spoiled, but I wasn’t much surprised. This, after all, is meant to be waterproof and I guess no digital readout is the trade-off. Moving along, I found this player to have many of the standard features expected of an MP3 player, including:

• 1GB of storage
• MP3 and WMA Compatible, iTunes Convertible
• Playlists
• Rechargeable Lithium-Ion Battery
• Basic play controls

…and, of course, a couple unique to a sport or waterproof player:

• Air-tight, waterproof ear buds
• Neoprene arm strap

Like some car MP3 players, playlists on this device are created by just dropping music into a folder. This is a little less convenient than creating a playlist via software and it means you’ll have to be creative if you want to put the tracks in a specific order. The 1GB of storage seems a little low from the perspective of someone with a 64GB iPhone, but for its size and durability, it gets the job done.

The River Test

This product arrived with exceptional timing for a proper test. Why just play with it near water for a day when you can fully immerse it into the type of activity that its creators had in mind? After charging the XtreaMP3 up fully and squeezing as much music as possible onto it, I took it with me on a seven day hike. Starting in Utah, two friends and I followed the Paria River 53 miles into Arizona, enduring cold, heat, mud, water, climbing and a lot of dirt and sand throughout. For those seven days, the XtreamMP3 tagged along in my pocket, surviving the same elements, and occasionally making the trip easier with music.

The picture above is not just of me on the river. Below is a close-up where you can see a wet, dirty, mud-covered XtreaMP3. Towards the end of our hike, I stopped to relax in the river with the best of Johnny Cash.

Although the waterproofed controls of the XtreaMP3 took some getting used to, the waterproofed ear buds sounded much better than I had expected. The arm band (which I did not take with me) takes some practice the first time to get the music player to attach to it and stay attached. One of the more unique elements FINIS included was the way in which the XtreaMP3 is charged. There’s a small waterproof sleeve that covers the tiny USB connector to keep water out. I’m not sure if any water got through, but I never had a problem with it working, even submerged in the river.

Conclusions

At about $90, the XtreaMP3 is a little less than most iPods, but you’ll trade some features for the peace of mind that a little dirt and water is no match for your music. Even accidentally throwing this player around didn’t phase it. The XtreaMP3 is the easy choice for the outdoor adventurer, surfer, or swimmer.

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MP3-2000 Music Search Site Review

Joe Tech — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 08:29:19 +0000

Although the following is a sponsored review, as always I strive to provide an honest opinion of the product reviewed.

I’ve reviewed some sites in the past that allow you to search for all kinds of things, but what if you’re just looking to download mp3s? There’s a site for that, too, and it’s called MP3-2000.com.

Download Music For Free

The site works in a few ways. If you’re looking for free music downloads or just wanting to purchase tracks, you can browse music by the most popular downloads, newest added, or most recently searched. If you know the artist or song, you can click on a letter of the alphabet at the top of the screen to browse for it or you can search for it by name using the search box. I performed several searches with mixed results, starting with a few local bands. Having no luck with the local bands, I moved on to some just barely more known music like Bigod 20, which surprised me with a few results.

Once you’ve found the track you’re searching for, a few options are presented within a couple tabs. In the second tab, you can obtain a link to share the track’s page with others. In the first tab, you can play the song right in the page or download it right from the source. In addition, there are links to purchase the track or turn it into a ringtone and if there’s more tracks from the same artist, they’ll be listed below. As well as all the links, an area for comments is provided and even lyrics if they’re available.

Buy Music Cheap

For those wanting to purchase the music they find, a couple options exist. The first is the ability to buy the song or album from mp3sales.ru. I did a little searching on the safety recommendations for mp3sales.ru and didn’t find anything alarming. Curious, I also checked their Legal Info page to see how they’re handling licensing. It looks like they are fine according to Russian laws. You may have to check your local copyright laws if you’re outside of Russia, though. mp3sales.ru offered the Bigod 20 tracks at €0.10 per track or €0.80 for the whole album, which is great compared to the $0.99 I normally pay per track elsewhere. Some browsing around gave me the impression that this pricing was pretty standard for most of the music selling on that site.

The ringtone link took me to a page offering up to 15 ringtones per month, but it was at a cost of $9.99/month. I’d didn’t sign up to get a hands-on experience with it, but if you have, let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Conclusions

MP3-2000.com is probably the easiest site to download music for free, with advanced searching, related tracks, and instant downloads in most cases. Functionally, my only complaint would be the suggestions of other music I might like because it was way off. If you’re concerned about the legality, you’ll want to remember that you’re bound to the laws in your own jurisdiction, so do your research.

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Olympus LS-7 Digital PCM Recorder Sounds Great

Joe Tech — Thu, 19 May 2011 16:29:18 +0000

At some point, almost everyone finds the need to record audio for one reason or another. For most of us, it’s just for remembering something important, as was the case the other day when I used the Voice Memo feature on my iPhone to make note of my brother’s new address. For professionals, however, audio recordings require a little more attention to detail. The Olympus LS-7 PCM recorder is one of the devices made for professionals.

Lots Of Features

Offering 24bit and 96kHz Linear PCM Recording, the LS-7 is not designed to just record a bit of audio for playback later. The sound quality is provided for professional use, offering crisp, clear audio recording and playback for things that require a little more fidelity and clarity than your shopping list. As you may be aware, higher quality in any digital media almost always means more storage space will be required and used. Thankfully, Olympus included 4GB of built in memory and a micro SD memory card slot for even more audio. At 4GB, you can get (according to the Olympus site) about 1.75 hours at a higher PCM quality and much more with lowered quality and varying formats, up to over 1,000 hours at the lowest quality with WMA files. In reality, anyone who pays the professional price for a high-end recorder like this will usually record in the upper limits of quality.

The recording and playback features are too numerous for me to go into detail on all of them, but there were so many, that I actually felt a bit overwhelmed at first. After playing with the LS-7 a bit and reading through the quick start guide, I was quickly navigating through several folders for audio file storage, recording, deleting, and changing many of the settings. The user interface required this practice in order for me to begin to feel comfortable, but it didn’t take long. With optional audio descriptions of every menu item and option, there was almost a feeling that the female voice was walking me through it. After getting comfortable with the menus, the voice can be turned off as well. The second feature that caught my attention was the storage folders. I thought it a bit odd that the LS-7 came with several pre-named folders by default rather than just adding and naming folders as needed. This is, perhaps, the one thing I would change about this device if I could. The final UI feature that impressed me was how I delete files on the LS-7. Although it sounds like a small thing, anyone who has ever lost any digital content that they created from scratch knows the value of confirmation before deleting anything. In this case, I would hit the Erase button that was ominously placed in a very easy to hit spot on the front of the device and I would be given an erase menu with the option to erase or cancel. After choosing Erase from the menu, I had to confirm. It’s an extra step, but it put a physical Erase button in a very easy place to find while not sacrificing my recordings to any mistakes.

The three built in microphones, including two Stereo Directional mics and a Center Omni Directional mic, are very prominent on the top of the LS-7. In my testing, I was easily able to see the Peak lights for the left and right light up as I moved my sound source. Upon playback, it was clear that they picked up as intended, too. Of course, this is another feature not needed for all applications, but when you need any kind of stereo or directional recording, this is a must. Other physical features included a built in speaker, microphone and headphone jacks, a large back-lit screen and even rechargeable batteries.

Device And Audio Quality

Weighing in at 3.17 ounces and with 4.4 x 1.5 x 0.6 inch dimensions, the LS-7 is small and portable, but also feels very sturdy and comfortable to hold and use. I wouldn’t want to drop it, but if I did, I think an external blemish might be the worst of it. To protect against that, a padded carrying sleeve is included, too, making the idea of breaking it accidentally a little tough to imagine. In addition to the features I mentioned above, the user interface as a whole is very detailed and easy to navigate with practice. Using the large screen well, Olympus left little to the imagination, freeing the professional to think about the work to be done.

The microphones picked up awesomely in my testing. I spoke normally, yelled and whispered and the LS-7 picked up every bit of my insanity clearly. Just to throw a curve ball at it, I even exited my home office with the LS-7 in my pocket, recording, to talk to my wife. The very beginning of the recording was lower, but after a couple seconds, everything she and I said was as clear as if I was holding a microphone in my hand.

Conclusions

The $199 retail price tag sets the LS-7 clearly out of the reach of those who don’t need a professional PCM recorder, but for those who do, it’s a welcomed and comfortably-priced offering. With an army of features, high quality microphones and intelligent design, the Olympus LS-7 makes a great little recorder for those with big needs.

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Top 5 Tech Gifts and Gadgets to give Mom this Mother’s Day

Joe Tech — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 03:01:14 +0000

Instead of going the boring and traditional route like buying her flowers and chocolates, why don’t you make her feel extremely special by buying her a high tech gift she can really use? Below are the top 5 tech gifts and gadgets to buy mom this Mother’s Day.

5. Wrap a Nap—this luxurious pillow isn’t exactly a “gadget” per say but its innovative yet highly simply design will blow any sleep-deprived mother away. This is because it acts as three items in one: a plush pillow that allows her to sleep comfortably even in the most awkward places and position— like upright in an office chair during her lunch break; earmuffs to silence unwanted noises like a spouse’s snoring; and a blindfold to block out sun’s rays to ensure she sleeps in a little longer when the kids are away. Price:$14.99

4. iWatchz Q series Watchband for iPod nano— this small “clip” attaches to any iPod nano, easily converting it to a stylish watch. Perfect for mothers who are constantly on the go, she’ll be able to make all of her appointments and know when she’s running late for the next PTA meeting while having access to her music library at all times. She can either use the built-in preferences on her iPod to choose particular backgrounds for her watch face or choose a standard white or black watch face for elegant occasions. Watch bands come in a variety of colors including black, white, red, blue and pink. Price: $24.95

3. Zumba Fitness for Nintendo Wii—Perfect for mothers who are trying to get into shape but don’t have the time to go the gym to take professional classes, Zumba Fitness from Majesco Entertainment is a sure fire way for a mother to tone up and exercise in the comforts of her very own home. The game includes 9 different dance styles: Reggaeton, Merengue, Salsa, Cumbia, Hip-Hop, Mambo, Rumba, Flamenco and Calypso. Price: $34.96 at Wal-Mart retail stores.

2. G2x by LG Android—If mom doesn’t have a smart phone yet then it’s about time that she’s upgrades. The G2x is the currently the hottest and most demand phone in the biz, but it’s only offered to T-Mobile costumers. This ultra sleek 4-G touch screen has a dual processor which enables it to perform at high speeds. It runs on the Android 2.2 (froyo) operating system though it is rumored to get the Gingerbread update soon. Price: $99.99 with 2 year T-mobile contract

1. iPad 2—The new and improved ultra light weight iPad2 is the ultimate gift to give this mother’s day. With it, she can do everything from writing to-do lists, catching up on some reading, video chatting with her relatives that live on the other side of the country, to even watching how-to-cooking shows on YouTube when preparing meals in the kitchen. She can even pull up educational games whenever the kids are bored. Price: Starts at $499.00

Mariana Ashley is a freelance writer who particularly enjoys writing about online colleges. She
loves receiving reader feedback, which can be directed to mariana.ashley031 @gmail.com.

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Cordies And Wrapster From Quirky

Joe Tech — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 19:22:32 +0000

I have written in the past about a company called Quirky where product ideas are submitted by people like you and me, developed by people like you and me, and then sold to people like you and me. I love Quirky and I’m a fairly regular contributor (and earner). In fact, I returned to my office today to find an unexpected package from the company. I love surprises.

Quirky Wrapster

Wrapster is a single piece of durable plastic that is uniquely designed to help you wrap up your ear bud headphones. In the video further down the page, I show how it works.

Retailing for $6.50, it’s a cheap way to keep your headphones from getting tangled up. It also boasts the ability to use it as an iPhone stand as well, but I couldn’t get it to hold my iPhone 4 up. Despite being unable to use it as a stand, I enjoyed it for the hour I owned it until my wife claimed it as her own.

Quirky Cordies

One of Quirky’s earlier products has been revamped and is shipping again. Cordies, coming in at $12.99 keeps all your cords and cables from falling off the back of your desk.

I showed this one in the video below as well and I was pretty impressed with how well it works. Cordies has a little weight to it to keep it on your desk and in my testing, it held up to some weight on the other end trying to pull the cable down.

Video Demonstrations

Both of the items described above are easy to talk about, but I thought it would be better to just show you how they work. Rather then using the company’s videos, I decided to make my own and put them to a real test. Other than the Wrapster’s bonus feature as an iPhone stand not working out for me, everything worked better than I expected. I also talk about the company as a whole and the awesome shirt they sent me, which I wore immediately.

About Quirky

For those unaware, Quirky is a site that takes ideas from anyone willing to submit them and presents them to the global community via their web site for evaluation. Once ideas have been evaluated by the community and by Quirky staff, one or more are selected to go through the development process. This process includes several smaller submission/evaluation rounds to flesh out things like the industrial design, colors, name, etc. Quirky also asks the community to participate in surveys and other ways to help define the end product. Eventually, a product is presented for pre-sales commitments and if enough sell, it goes into production and ships to buyers and stores.

The beautiful part is how people make money on the site. People make money by earning “influence” in a product. That influence translates into a percentage of the sale price of each unit sold for the item the influence is earned on. As an example, I have some influence in Wrapster, so I earn a wee tiny amount of money on each and every Wrapster sold. It’s very tiny, but 87,000+ Wrapsters later, it’s adding up nicely. The most influence is given to those who present the ideas and the least to those who just vote or help guide the development, but it all earns. I’ve only earned real money little bits at a time with the voting and guiding, but have made a few hundred dollars so far. Others have made thousands. Check it out for yourself if you haven’t yet.

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The 10 Best iPhone Apps For A Road Trip

Joe Tech — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 02:30:34 +0000

I love to travel… I don’t get to head out of town often, but when I do, I need my technology. Being away from my computer for more than a few hours gets me a little twitchy, so road trips have traditionally been hard to deal with. With the iPhone and the almost unmanageable list of applications to choose from, things have gotten much better. I just got back from a road trip from Phoenix, AZ to Long Beach, CA, where Michelle and I stayed on the Queen Mary for an extended party, and my iPhone helped a lot when it came to relaxing and getting things done. Here’s a list of ten must-have iPhone applications for your road trip.

Google Maps

One of the original built-in applications in the iPhone’s OS is the Google Maps app. With it, you can quickly search for your destination and map your route to get there. With your trip all mapped out, you can relax and just check in once in a while for any freeway changes or other details. Of course I’m still waiting for Google to give us turn-by-turn directions on the iPhone for free (yes, I AM that spoiled by Google), but there’s a few (not free) apps out there to try as well. I use Google because it’s incredibly simple and I can jump right to street view to see what the building I’m looking for looks like.

Pandora

My favorite source for streaming music on the web is also my favorite source on my iPhone. What I didn’t know was how useful it could really be on a road trip. I intended to make a note of where in the desert it stopped working, but it just kept working the whole time. Other than a couple times cutting out for about 30 seconds, Pandora streamed brilliantly over AT&T’s 3G network the entire drive. Now if AT&T could just get my phone to reliably make phone calls where I need it to…

Email

Another standard app on most smart phones is an email application and the iPhone has a pretty complete email program and it handles multiple accounts. The thing that I used to hate is coming back home to find thousands of emails to go through. This weekend, I was able to keep up with my two important email accounts and respond to people in a timely manner while removing all the spam from my server to only sync valuable emails when I get home.

TweetDeck

While I tried to enjoy my vacation more than Twitter, I still have thoughts and photos I want to share while out of town. Vacations also offer lots of fun things to tweet about. I’ve tried a few of the top Twitter iPhone apps, but this one is my favorite. Just waiting in line for tickets to the aquarium, I was able to check for new tweets, mentions, and DMs and reply to a couple in just a couple minutes. Then I globally marked the rest as “read”. Easy.

Weather

It’s always important to know the weather where you’re going, and if you’re on a long road trip, this can be tricky. When we drove to Detroit and back last summer, we passed through several states and the weather app was very useful to plan out our wardrobe as well as touristy events.

Safari

Despite the completely unexplainable fact that I still can’t view flash in a web site in Safari on my iPhone, it’s still a great browser. It’s pretty fast and renders very nicely. Best of all, it’s as close as I’ve ever gotten to a real web browsing experience on a phone (except sites with flash). Wireless access in many hotels will run you about ten bucks a day and in the Queen Mary, it didn’t matter because I got almost no wifi signal in my room. Browsing the web over 3G in my room was a huge convenience on many occasions.

Gazette

I read a lot of blogs. I try to stay on top of industry news and events and still read blogs of colleagues and influential bloggers. I could lock down an hour in my room to do this on the laptop, but then I wouldn’t be vacationing, would I? Instead, I prefer to skim my preferred feeds in the frequent spare moments when I’m waiting for Michelle to get ready, the elevator is taking forever, or, dare I say it… the bathroom. Catching up in these otherwise wasted spare minutes leaves that hour free for vacationing.

Camera

I have a digital camera and it takes better pictures than my iPhone, but it also runs on AA batteries, is inconvenient to tote around, and lacks the luxury of instant sharing. With the iPhone’s camera, I can snap off a shot any time and I can take thousands before I run out of space. There’s tons of ways to share my photos, from the Facebook or MySpace apps to Twitter apps to Flickr apps like the one mentioned below. Additionally, with the 3G S, I was able to shoot video, which I found myself doing a lot more on this trip.

FlickIt

One of the apps I use the most, vacationing or not, is FlickIt. It just uploads your photos right to your Flickr account. You can add detailed information and tags to each photo, but I usually just do that later from a PC. The only thing missing is the ability to upload videos to my Flickr account. Then it would be perfect.

WiFiTrak

WiFi is almost always a better option than 3G in terms of speed, but when you travel, you often have to wait until you’re at the hotel or near a hot spot and even then, it will usually cost enough to make you grimace a bit. One way around this is to leech off someone else’s WiFi. Just fire up this app and find a suitable (and open) connection and use it. As seen here, you won’t always find an open router, but when one is nearby it helps to have a fast way of knowing and connecting to it.

Bonus : RDP

What if that piece of information, email, phone number, etc is only available to you from your home or office computer? This happened to me over the weekend. I can’t think of a better test case. Servers were about to be moved and I needed quick access to some IP addresses that were in a list only on my computer at the office. I was on the beach with no other electronics than my phone, but I opened the RDP app and connected to my computer at the office, got the information I needed, and went back to enjoying the beach. The alternative would have been to catch a cab, get back to the hotel, fire up the laptop and pay for the WiFi access. I have only needed this app twice and it could use a little bit of tweaking, but both times it was a life saver.

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