Tech Toys

Unlike most months, this Tech Toy isn’t a gadget, but rather a service. Dropbox is an increasingly useful service that I have deployed to many of my clients and I wanted to make sure that I informed as many people as possible about it.

Simply put, Dropbox is an Internet-based file storage service. First, it allows you to access your files from any computer or mobile device anywhere you are through a web interface. This feature by itself is extremely powerful. Second, it can directly synchronize your data among multiple computers. The synchronization feature can replace the need for a file server for many small businesses. Dropbox also allows you to share selected files with other users. Finally, since the data is being stored on Dropbox’s servers on the Internet, your files are effectively backed up offsite.

In operation, once the very simple software is installed, a “Dropbox” folder is created and any files you put in that folder are uploaded to Dropbox’s servers and synchronized to any other computers you install Dropbox. It’s very simple and uses the same files and folder metaphor that most people are familiar with. Dropbox uses encryption to store and transmit your files, so your data stays secure.

If all this sounds good, Dropbox is also very inexpensive to boot. To start, Dropbox is free for up to 2 GB of storage. For many users, 2 GB is more than plenty and you can expand your free storage up to 8 GB 16 GB if you refer other users to Dropbox. Beyond the 2 GB, Dropbox starts at 50 GB 100 GB for only $10/month, and you can get a couple of months free if you sign up for a year at a time. Dropbox has larger capacity subscriptions as well.

If you are interested in Dropbox, you can sign up for a free trial plus get some additional storage for free by clicking on this link. If you have any questions about Dropbox, please feel free to contact me.

The fact that the iPhone 4S is the Tech Toy for this month should be no great surprise! It is amazing that each succession of the iPhone surpasses the amount of anticipation and headlines that the previous one did. Each new phone outsells the previous one! However, with each release, there is a also a lot written negatively prior to the phone going on sale. So let me give you the straight story and personal experiences.

Realize that much of what is written negatively is done by technology “experts” and technically savvy individuals. They generally view technology from the perspective of one who is very fluent with it and are looking for the newest, cutting edge features and options. They complain and downplay new devices that aren’t on the technology cutting edge. However, this is not the viewpoint of everyday people. Yes, everyday people want great technology, but they want their technology to work well first and foremost. If it is cutting-edge, great, but it must work easily with virtually no problems. Apple gets this and is why they don’t necessarily jam-pack each new device with every possible new technology available. They create the best device possible that provides the best customer experience. Obviously this is a formula that works as each iPhone continues to set sales records – without the need of pricing discounts or free phone giveaways as their competitors must do.

So that being said, how does the new iPhone 4S stack up? One can read all the tech specs and get lost in all the details but let me sum it up: the iPhone 4S is a definitive upgrade in power and technical specs from the iPhone 4 and a huge leap from the iPhone 3GS (which many people like myself will be upgrading from). Besides the greatly improved central processor and graphic processor in the iPhone 4S, the camera is also greatly improved, offering higher megapixel resolution on both still photos and videos. That being said, these improvements aren’t likely enough to justify an upgrade for most iPhone 4 owners. However, the next feature will.

By far the biggest improvement to the iPhone 4S is the addition of the Siri feature. Siri lets you use your voice to control your phone. Now you can ask your iPhone to set reminders for you, look up information, or give you directions. You can also now dictate text messages and e-mails! Voice control was something that I was looking forward to on an iPhone, but I didn’t expect it to arrive with this revision of the iPhone. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised. So far in my testing of Siri, I’ve been impressed how well it works. There is room for improvement, but the great thing is that Siri should automatically improve over time. I expect that over the next few weeks and month, the accuracy of Siri will get better and better.

I read an article stating that we may be witnessing history with the iPhone 4S. Siri has the potential to change the technology world similarly to the way the mouse did. Voice control of our technology has been a holy grail and Apple may have finally gotten it right. I agree with the premise of the article. It is easy to imagine that one day we will look back and say, “Remember when we couldn’t control our technology with our voice? The iPhone 4S may be the device that launches this new era in voice control.

Trying to keep up with the news today is tough! Information moves so fast and there are so many options for getting your news on the Internet that keeping up with what is going on in the world can be a full-time job. I know that just keeping up on the technology industry was using up a lot of my time. I needed something to help me be more efficient. Devices like the iPad are great readers, but it still wasn’t quite enough.

So I took the time to research some iPad apps and found a great service called Pulse. Pulse basically aggregates all the news sources that a reader wants, allowing for easy quick browsing of the articles in a simple interface. The news sources can also include Twitter feeds as well as Facebook, Youtube, and other social media platforms. Pulse has been selected as one of 50 apps in Apple’s App Store Hall of Fame and named one of TIME’s top 50 iPhone apps of 2011

Since I started using Pulse, I am a lot more efficient and can quickly scan through all my favorite news sources on my iPad, choosing to read the ones I am interested in right then. I also have the ability to save articles to my Pulse account. I often do this when I read an article I want to re-read later, and also to have the ability to review all my saved articles on my main computer. If this isn’t enough, the app and the service are FREE!

Pulse is available for the iPad, iPhone, and Android devices. For more information on Pulse, check out their web site at http://www.pulse.me

This isn’t exactly a Tech Toy … it’s like a box full of Tech Toys! Many of you have had the unfortunate experience of your local video rental store closing. If you’re like me, the thing we miss the most is the loss of video game rentals. With the ability to rent movies online through services like Netflix or iTunes, we don’t need to pick up movie rentals anymore, but video games for our Wii, Playstation, or XBox still need physical discs. The good news is that Redbox has come in to fill the void left by Blockbuster and other stores.

Having completed a pilot test of 5,000 kiosks, Redbox has just recently started renting video games at all of its locations nationwide. For $2 per day, you can pick up games for the Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3, or Microsoft XBox 360. For more information, see this article or Redbox’s website.

Remember, $2/day may seem inexpensive, but it can add up quickly if you keep the game too long. Make sure you know what a game would cost both new and used before you rent it from Redbox. It may be less expensive to buy a used copy of a game than to rent it for more than a week! Check out Slackers and Play N Trade as good local sources of used video games.

If you have any questions about new technology devices, feel free to contact me any time!

This is another example of an idea that I had a while back. So obviously I think it is a great product! But seriously, I think this is an example of the beginning of a new class of products. It solves a couple of problems in a very innovative way.

The idea is very simple: a stationary exercise bike that generates electricity.  By the recent reports and statistics on FitnessTrainer.com, for fitness centers, the amount of electricity produced could help significantly offset their power bill. They key to the visiCycle is that it does not require any additional equipment or rewiring for the building they will be used in.

Now imagine as this technology improves and more electricity can be generated – and not just from stationary bikes, but from other exercise equipment as well. Pretty soon fitness centers may become power plants! They would be profiting from the electricity they produce so they could lower or perhaps even eliminate membership fees. Perhaps they could even pay their members! If people could get paid to exercise, that would certainly help encourage fitness. So this product may be the forerunner to those that solve two big social problems – energy and obesity.

Read more about the visCycle at Resource Fitness’s website. If you have seen any interesting new technology devices, please let me know!

This month’s Tech Toy isn’t really something that you can buy right now, but it is a technology that I have long dreamed about. I don’t think I’m alone as this type of technology repeatedly appears in futuristic movies such as “Demolition Man”, and “I Robot”. Because it is something I am so geeked up about, I thought I’d write about it while the news is hot. So read on to see if one day you too can say, “self-drive”.

Google has been testing automated car technology on the roads of California lately. With a safety driver in the driver’s seat ready to take over in case of emergency, Google’s cars have logged over 140,000 miles and have only been in one accident – and that accident was a human driver rear-ending the Google car.

The Google cars use video cameras, radar sensors, and a laser range finder to “see” other traffic. It also uses detailed map information that Google collects ahead of time to navigate the road. Google says they hope that automated cars of the future could save lives and cut energy consumption. I’m just hoping that I can have my car drive me around so I can use my computer while I’m in the car. I could save so much time! As Wayne Campbell once said, “It will be mine. Oh yes. It will be mine.”

At the time of this writing, the new Playstation Move system has just been launched in the United States. Some of you may have seen the commercials, which I’ve observed playing heavily during football games. Whether you’ve seen the commercials or not, I’m sure most of you are wondering what the Playstation Move system is. Well, lucky for you I am here to explain the details as well as my thoughts and concerns.

In simple terms, the Playstation Move is a new controller for the Playstation 3. However, unlike past controllers, the Move is a motion controller, which means it reacts to a player’s movements, very similar in concept to the Nintendo Wii controllers. So basically the Playstation Move brings “motion gaming” capabilities to the Playstation 3. For those of you that are familiar with the Nintendo Wii, you get the idea.

For their similarities, the Playstation Move uses different technology than the Nintendo Wii. Sony claims that this gives you a move immersive and realistic gaming experience. Certainly from reading their description of the geeky details, it sounds like it should. Since the Move was just released literally last weekend, there are not yet enough reports to draw a conclusive assessment. However early testers have reported that the system does work very well.

Overall, the Playstation Move sounds great and I am excited to try it out. However, I do have some concerns about the system along with some caveats for those of you looking to purchase the Move. Most of the concerns revolve around the overall complexity of the system. Where the Nintendo Wii’s default controllers are motion controllers (the “Wiimotes”, as Nintendo calls them), the Playstation Move is an add-on controller to the Playstation 3. This has several implications.

First, the Move controller requires another peripheral called the Playstation Eye, which is basically an existing product from Sony that is like a webcam for the Playstation. The Eye works in combination with the Move controller to precisely track player movement. Again, the technology behind how the Move system works with the Eye is very advanced and interesting to read about. However, to consumers who are purchasing the $50 Move controller and then find out they also need a $40 Playstation Eye, they might not find that so interesting. There is a bundle package available for $100 that includes the Move controller, the Eye, and a game. This bundle should make adding on the Move system easier to an existing Playstation 3, but I feel that many consumers will balk at spending $100 to add motion gaming capability to a system they likely have already spent at least $300 – $400 on. There is also a full bundle package for people who do not already own a Playstation 3 system, which I will touch on later.

Additionally, there is an optional (or not so-optional, depending on the game) accessory called the navigation controller, which lists for $30. While the concept of an accessory controller isn’t new – for example the Nintendo Wii has what they call the Nunchuk accessory – $30 may be a bit steep. The Nunchuk is only $20, and while honestly a $10 difference isn’t all that much, it may be just enough to make consumers pause, especially when they add up the cost of all the other accessories.

Because the Move is an add-on to an existing game platform, not all games are compatible with the Move system. Again compared to the Wii, where all Wii games work with the Wiimotes in one form or another, games must be written specifically to work with the Move controller. Some existing games will be updated to work with the Move controller as well, but that actually can complicate matters further for average users. So depending on the game, or depending if a particular game has been updated, players will either need the Move controller or the older style Playstation controller. Technology “gray areas” are one of the more frustrating experiences for users, and this could turn out to be a very gray area.

In order to stay accurate, the Move system must be periodically calibrated. In reading early reviews, I did read that some people believe this calibration is required far too often. Knowing average technology users like I do, if calibration is required too often, this will slowly but surely frustrate players. Frustration leads to disuse, and if players simply don’t use the Move system very often, it will sit gathering dust in a corner like an old piece of exercise equipment. In order to be successful, the Playstation Move system must gain sufficient acceptance in the marketplace so that game publishers will make more and more games to use with it. If the Move system is frustrating to use, it may have difficultly gaining marketshare.

For customers who do not already own a Playstation 3, you can purchase a complete system with a Playstation Move bundle that includes the controller and the Eye, along with a standard controller and a motion compatible game. The bundle price of $400 is actually a good value considering the cost of all the separate items individually – but $400 is $400. Compare this to the Nintendo Wii which offers a similar bundle for $200 with a game. And again, besides the cost factor, there is the simplicity factor that I described above.The Wii, similar to the Apple iPhone, has seen tremendous success not just because it is a powerful device, but because it is so easy to use. Because of this ease of use, both devices expanded the market for their respective categories beyond the traditional user base. In the case of the Wii, it appealed to people far beyond the relatively smaller market of “gamers”. The more complex setup of the Playstation Move system and distinctions between Move-compatible and non-compatible games may be just enough to limit its adoption.

As a technology expert who also loves video games, I am entirely excited by the Playstation Move. It continues the evolution of motion gaming started by the Wii and added on to by the Apple iOS devices (iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad). The technology seems top-notch and it could advance the entire market. However, the complexity of the technology, along with its cost, have me worried if the system will gain a significant foothold. With the holiday shopping season approaching, our questions will likely be answered soon after. If enough units sell AND the players’ experiences are good, then we will likely continue to see more Move compatible games for the Playstation 3.

If you have questions about this or any other emerging technology, please contact me an I’ll be glad to give you my thoughts.

There has been much talk about using hydrogen as a fuel. While it still may take quite a while longer to see widespread use of hydrogen as a fuel for cars, we may actually see hydrogen as a fuel for small electronic devices fairly soon. The HydroFILL and HydroSTIK were featured at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. At the time the devices were to released later this year. While it does not appear the products have been released yet, in anticipation I think they make a good Tech Toy of the Month.

The simple explanation for how these devices work is that the HydroFill extracts hydrogen out of ordinary water, which becomes attached to a special metal alloy that can be plugged into the HydroSTIKs. The HydroSTIKs are designed in battery-like form factors, which should allow them to be used like normal batteries. When the HydroSTIKs are depleted, the metal alloy is put back into the HydroFILL and “recharged” again

If commercially successful, products like these that can use hydrogen as a fuel source could save a lot of power, reduce the amount of batteries being thrown in landfills, and reduce air pollution. So let’s keep an eye on this technology and see where it takes us.

If you have questions about this or any other emerging technology, please contact me an I’ll be glad to give you my thoughts.