Category: product endorsements

love the Apple store

On By Rick McIn Apple, Google, product endorsementsLeave a comment

I spent time at the Hong Kong store, perfectly located near the Star Ferry terminal.

I was getting specifics on how to use an iPhone 4S while traveling internationally.

Apple retail stores have been a huge hit. Microsoft tried to duplicate those. Now Google has opened an Android store in Melbourne.

In Hong Kong I was hanging out with coaches from mainland China. Most had Apple products. Anyone who’s got money in China has no interest in iFhoney or iPaddy.

• Bloomberg – China Becomes Apple’s Second-Largest Market

… that said, I’m liking this $500 Windows knock-off called the “AirBook“.

Impressive copycattery.

You probably heard that world’s largest Apple store just opened in the historic Grand Central Station, New York.

My $1000 original 11-Inch MacBook Air was just voted best laptop in the MacWorld Editors’ Choice Awards. I love it.

If shopping for anything Apple, look first at the refurbished area in the online Apple store. Here’s an iPad 2 with $80 off, for example.

NO on the “Yes Inn”, Hong Kong

On By Rick McIn product complaints, product endorsements, travelLeave a comment

Worst hostel in many years.

Yes Inn, one of the many cheapos in Hong Kong.

Not friendly. Not much helpful. Crowded. No instructions on how to get the shower hot. Bad.

I’d gone there because of this offer on their website:

That was posted on this page.

Seems to be a ‘bait and switch’. At least that was the experience of me and a couple from Utah. No response to the ‘inquiry’. And then a renegotiation on the 7 night cost once you get to the desk.

I was happy to move over to another cheapo — the Ah Shan Hostel (reviews) in Mong Kok. Better — only 1 giant cockroach sighting … but I still left after 2 nights.

From the same desk they run Dragon Inn / A-Inn hostels. All the private hostels in Hong Kong are crappy I’m hearing from other travelers. Now I’m happily ensconced at Mt Davis hostel, my hangout many times in the past.

That photo is from 1983 … but not much has changed since. They’ve added high speed WiFi.

new Nokia / Windows phones are here

On By Rick McIn Apple, product endorsementsLeave a comment

My buddy Andy from Microsoft showed me an unreleased version in August. So I knew they would be cool.

Quite different, too, from Apple and Android.

Here’s the first available commercially, I believe, though not in North America. You can order one in Europe, including the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

That’s the Nokia Lumia

It’s getting good reviews, even from the Apple fanboys.

I’m still likely to get an iPhone 4S in December. It will take some time to work out the bugs in the Windows phones.

I’m getting an iPhone 4S in December

On By Rick McIn Apple, product endorsements1 Comment

The feature I like best is the camera.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

If I actually use the device for navigation, email, social networking … I’ll want excellent syncing between phone and my MacBook Air. Not perfect, it looks like Apple is on the way to getting that working.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

It’s the first iPhone that is easy to use internationally. But it’s critical I know how to turn off roaming and data.

related – International iPhone: Avoiding iPhone Data Roaming Charges

… those “Bullet Trains” must be dangerous

On By Rick McIn product endorsements, travelLeave a comment

… During the Shinkansen‘s 45-year, nearly 7 billion-passenger history, there have been no passenger fatalities due to derailments or collisions, despite frequent earthquakes and typhoons. Injuries and a single fatality have been caused by doors closing on passengers or their belongings …

I’m riding Japan on the extremely comfortable trains, more spacious and comfortable than the European equivalent, I’d say.

I have a Japan Rail Pass, available only to foreigners. JR owns about 70% of the track in the country.

My Pass is good for almost every train, but not the 300 km/h (186 mph) Nozomi. The trip between Tokyo and Osaka, a distance of 515 kilometres, takes 2 hours 26 minutes on Nozomi. My slow poke Bullet train took over 3hrs!

These trains are the envy of UK commuters, and government, says The Guardian.

Obama keeps talking up the concept for the USA, but I doubt it’s going to happen any time soon.

===== Update*

I met a woman on a train today who told me of what happened during the earthquake. The bullet train we were on was shut down for about 2 months. She had a friend on the same line at the time … the train stopped in a tunnel. Passengers had to overnight and then walk out to a peach farm where they were eventually rescued by bus.

first look Galaxy Nexus

On By Rick McIn Apple, Google, product endorsements1 Comment

If I don’t get an iPhone 4S, it’ll likely be a Galaxy Nexus, instead.

First best video here.

The Windows phones look prettier than either, actually.
_____

A leaked video shows the new Gmail, a big improvement. If you’re still on Hotmail :(, best watch it.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Dana bought a ROKU

On By Rick McIn product complaints, product endorsements1 Comment

In Las Vegas:

… (Dish Network) bundled with our phone and internet has been costing us around $170 per month, for terribly slow internet. Of those 300 channels, we use perhaps a maximum of 15 of them. …

Yeesh. Why hasn’t traditional TV improved options for consumers?

She dropped Dish and got this digital video player, instead, the ROKU.

Channels available via the internet include Hulu Plus (U.S. only), Netflix (U.S. and Canada only), Disney.com, TWiT.tv and dozens more.

Dana:

… made the leap and bought a ROKU. It’s brilliant.

… In addition, switching to a better internet provider will allow for high speed everything. So it’s official – done with traditional cable/satellite TV.

Tweet the Streets – Quit TV! You can Too!

Tweet the Streets, by the way, is news from the people, for the people. Bloggers working together to create something like an online news magazine. Dana has volunteered to write for them, when inspiration strikes.

Will Roberts is one of the founders, a friend of Dana’s.

related – TechCrunch – The Four Big Steps To Cutting The Cord

tech gurus

On By Rick McIn Apple, audiocasts, Google, product complaints, product endorsementsLeave a comment

The most popular Geekcast is TWIT, This Week in Technology.

I’ve actually become less attached to that show, preferring MacBreak Weekly and This Week in Google as audiocasts from the same network.

But the most recent episode of TWIT was excellent: There’s An App in my Lap

Leo Laporte, Om Malik, Robert Scoble, and John C. Dvorak

The first 3 are respected tech gurus. Dvorak’s there as a comic, contrary counterpoint. Here’s their advice:

• iPhone 4S is a winner — first as a replacement for you point-and-shoot camera. Still a great phone for regular folks. Tech geeks will be happier with the high end Androids. Look for the Nexus Prime with Ice Cream Sandwich to be launched next week.

• iPhone 4S Siri voice controller is “the future”, but works inconsistently so far

• Kindle Fire (coming Nov. 15th) likely to be a loser, a poor competitor to the iPad. Instead get a $79 Kindle e-reader, the low end. A perfect Christmas present.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

It costs $109 if you want NO ADS on that same cheap device. … I’m not sure how well it works around the world. Check first before you buy one if you’re not living in the States.

• huge fight looming between Facebook & Google. Many already spend most of their time in Facebook … when they can SEARCH and WATCH TV / Movies in Facebook, they’ll never need to leave.

• the future of watching what you want, when you want, online is still up in the air. Another looming battle.

• Microsoft bought Skype. The gurus have no confidence that’s going to work. Competitors could beat Skype.

P.I. Soccer Moms

On By Rick McIn audiocasts, product endorsements, things getting worse, TVLeave a comment

This American Life is the best radio show in existence. Always good.

But they outdid themselves in episode 447:

THE INCREDIBLE CASE OF THE P.I. MOMS
Originally aired 09.23.2011

What do you get when you take a P.I. firm, then add in a bunch of sexy soccer moms, official sponsorship from Glock, a lying boss, and delusions of grandeur? This week’s show.

Ira explains how a man named Chris Butler created a private detective agency where the investigators were good-looking soccer moms. Their publicist invited a reporter named Pete Crooks from Diablo magazine to do a ride-along with the PI Moms on a case. Pete thinks it’ll be a simple, fun assignment. Turns out he was wrong. …

Chris Butler is a megalomaniac who decides that his Soccer Mom private investigators would make him a reality TV celebrity. He now faces life in prison.

… On one level it’s a brilliant, astonishing story. On another an indictment of American “culture” in 2011.

To listen download from here, or subscribe to the audiocast via iTunes.

One bit of good news — the P.I. Soccer Moms reality TV show was cancelled.

have you seen Source Code?

On By Rick McIn movies, product endorsements2 Comments

I love all movies with dubious time travel plots. Films like Memento.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

… Source Code has received critical acclaim by reviewers. Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 92% of critics have given the film a positive review …

Critics have compared Source Code with the 1993 film Groundhog Day …

Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times called the film “Confounding, exhilarating, challenging – and the best movie I’ve seen so far in 2011.” Roger Ebert gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4, calling it “an ingenious thriller” where “you forgive the preposterous because it takes you to the perplexing.” …

Jake Gyllenhaal is terrific.