Earbuds

Now that we have entered into the new frontier of wireless headphones and lightning connectors, I find myself struggling to find the perfect headphone.  Somehow it feels like with all these new options and technologies there's more for me to be fussy about.

For the past 6 or 7 years my go-to has been the Bose MiE2 in-ear headphones.  I used to love them.  Finally!, unobtrusive headphones that would comfortably stay in my ear, have great sound quality, and convenient functionality & iPod controls.  These were a game-changer for me in terms of allowing me to rock out, listen to audiobooks, scriptures, do house-chores more productively, be on long conference calls, etc., all while looking super cool like this dude.

The only problem (at first) was that after scrunching these things up in my pocket and using them all the time they would eventually fray and/or stop working.

Bose was awesome about replacing them for me even when they were out of warranty.  By my count I've replaced 3 or 4 sets of their headphones with different variations / upgrades each time.

Then the iPhone 7 came out a couple years ago which has been my most challenging iPhone relationship to date (no big leaps forward from prior models, no more headphone jack, and just the sense that at this point in the iPhone cycle I shouldn't still need to stress about keeping the batteries charged all the time and manually plugging it in each night like some 20th century schmo).  I was willing to be a lightning port adapter, or at least be a dongle supporter.  The problem is that 1) the dongle, besides adding a little unwanted bulk, also causes the Bose headphones to occasionally short out in my experience, and 2) the industry hasn't seemed to have caught up with lightning ports.  I was searching on a monthly basis for a good lightning port headphone.  They're supposed to have truer sound, which is nice, but not if the only way to get them is through some boutique retailer (e.g. Audeze) or some small-time shop (e.g. Libratone) where I still have to shell out for them and I have no idea how comfortably they're going to fit; especially when I've grown so accustomed to the Bose StayHear tips.  I don't know why Bose hasn't jumped on board with them yet.  But given that they haven't I feel like I have to make a choice, especially since my most recent pair is once again frayed and I don't feel great about returning them yet again for a purchase I originally made back in 2010 or so.

So now I either a) go down the rabbit-hole of lightning cable options where I probably won't like the way they fit, or b) explore bluetooth options.  (I should make clear that I'm not willing to look at over-the-ear headphones as I'm not interested in looking like a DJ or a ski bunny.)  Frustratingly, what I've learned on the bluetooth front is that the Apple AirPods don't seem to have much good competition in terms of integrated functionality or even in the fit/comfort or sound categories.

After weighing all my options I decided to go with AirPods and leap into the wireless future.  Here's what I have to say about them after about a month 5 months of using them.

One of my favorite product ads in a long time. [Commercial]

Pros

• Wireless - No more excruciating wire mishaps where the slack catches on a door handle and yanks them out of my ear.  And now I can distance myself from my iPhone without interruption (like when I'm following a recipe or using the torch light to help me to kill ants or stuff like that)
• Good Sound
• Stability is better than I originally thought -- the regular Apple headphones have always easily fallen out of my ears which used to annoy me like no other, but what I've found with the AirPods is that the lack of wires / weight makes them stay centered in your ear and not get tugged around, so they tend to stay in place
• Phone call audio is great on both ends

Cons

• Lack of functionality - Limited to engaging Siri by double-tapping, or pausing by pulling an earbud out of my ear.  The problem with both of these things is that 1) I don't really want to talk to Siri any more than I have to, and 2) when I pull an earbud out of my ear I often don't have a great place to put it, and also the technology that is supposed to keep it paused by recognizing that the earbud is not enclosed in an ear often gets confused by my hand or my shirt pocket and resumes playing.  Some of this functionality is supposed to be addressed in iOS 11, which I look forward to.  [UPDATE: I CAN NOW DOUBLE TAP THE LEFT EARBUD TO PAUSE MUSIC WHICH DOESN'T SOUND LIKE MUCH, BUT IS A HUGE IMPROVEMENT.]  
• Spotty bluetooth - It's mostly a smooth connection but on average a couple times a day I either get occasional short skips in songs or it pauses.  (I'm really tired of not having steady music playing experiences.  It's stuff like this that occasionally makes me want to go all the way back to a walkman or something.) [UPDATE: THE BLUETOOTH HAS BEEN MUCH MORE RELIABLE THAN IT WAS AT FIRST.  STILL NOT PERFECT THOUGH.]
• It's one more thing I need to charge (which was probably my biggest gripe with the Apple Watch, and the main reason why I returned it).  Thankfully it holds a charge very well, and it also recharges very quickly.  I usually recharge my case every 2-4 days or so and I'm good.
• The sound quality is amazing for what they are, but I do miss the slightly better quality of my old Boses.  
• I don't love the feel of the cool, hard plastic.  I would prefer silicone tips.  
• The immaculate white floss-holder-like AirPod holder picks up tons of lint and scuffs in my pocket.  
  
• The 'find my AirPods' functionality is pretty lame because 1) it only works on the earbuds themselves, not the case, and 2) every time I've kind of needed it the earbuds have been offline, so I get a message that my AirPods will make a noise when they're back online, which is never.  

After 5 months of using them, overall I'm very satisfied with them.  I like that I can pause them and keep them in my ears and still occasionally get by with just keeping them in my ears without feeling rude (like with a cashier or something).

Apple Watch

Put me down as being pro Apple Watch.  It all feels very reminiscent to when the original iPhone came out.  A revolutionary device (granted, significantly less so in this case) that a lot of online commenters are already "hating on."

People are already upset about the battery life, predicting it will not meet sales expectations, saying they can't see any real need for it, upset about the lack of health-tracking abilities, and up in arms about the price.

Sport model.  $349-$399 depending on size.

Let's look at the positives.  For $350 you can put a great-looking watch on your wrist that happens to basically be a computer.  I can envision using the watch as a handy walkie talkie to, say, avoid having to fish out my phone with my one child-free hand in 10-degree weather to ask my wife what I should do now that I learned there are no whole chickens available this week at the farmers' market.  Or send her a tap to say "I'm on my way home," or two taps to say "I got held up a bit, but should be coming home just in time to be slightly too late to eat dinner with the family and a bit too early to avoid throwing off the kids' nighttime routine, thereby creating a 2-day cycle of grouchiness and general irritability, and also I love you."

The iPod controls, and no doubt controls for apps like Audible eventually, I think will also come in handy.  I often want to jot a digital note and bookmark a certain passage in an audiobook, but don't because I'm commuting to work and my phone is too deeply buried in my layers of clothing.  I could come up with several other nice conveniences, though I would have to admit the list is not super long; yet, anyways.

One of the key things for me is that the watch just looks really good.  It's true to long-established rules of watchmaking, yet is also bravely forward-thinking.  (For example, at first I was bothered that they opted to go with a rectangular design, thinking that this made it too conspicuously geeky relative to a traditional circle, but then I learned that Jony Ive and the design team quickly came to the conclusion that if people are going to be using this largely to read lists, well then the watch demands to be rectangular.  It's final design ended up being somewhat similar to the 1904 Cartier Santos.)

As for the complaints about the price, yes the $10-17k gold versions are ridiculous, but when your product caters to the entire globe, you're going to run up against some interesting consumer preferences.  Also, it seems like a neat opportunity for Apple to really dig in to metallurgy and do some groundbreaking things with gold (making it more scratch-resistant than most anything else currently out there).  And it doesn't extend just to gold; they're also forging steel in the mountains of Khazad Dum (joke Lord of the Rings reference) and making it 80% more durable than standard.

Sleek & stealth watch face with stainless steel case.  Venezia leather, handcrafted strap.

And the straps are a breakthrough in and of themselves.  A year or two ago I wanted to get a black leather strap for an automatic Seiko watch.  Trolling through hundreds of nearly identical eBay and Amazon ads for watch straps was boring, overwhelming, and eventually unsatisfying.  This new system Apple has spawned is both more simplified and more exciting.  And the modular nature of the straps (i.e. being able to slide-snap them in and out with the watch case) is a real breakthrough, especially considering how pricey the bands are.  Yes, the bands are very expensive ($450 for a steel link bracelet) but if you take the time to read on their website about the thought and materials and craftsmanship that goes into them you just might be persuaded.  And if not, again, you can always buy a handsome $350 version.

Kindle Fire Vs. iPad (Forget the Rest)

Amazon last week revealed their iPad rival, the Kindle Fire. At a price of $200 and with a seemingly comparable array of features it demands to be considered as an alternative.

Overall tablet use in the U.S. has skyrocketed up from 3.4 million devices in Q2-2010 to 13.6 million devices in the same period in 2011, a growth of 303% (see chart below). Just walk up and down the aisle on a plane ride and you’ll see how ubiquitous these tablets—and in particular the iPad—are becoming.

I feel as though we are about to break through to the next frontier of multimedia. The infrastructure is being put in place but we’re not quite there yet. I love the fact that with a tablet you can read and listen to books, watch instant movies and TV shows (and mirror those programs onto your TV), view photos, browse and shop online, email, and a whole host of miscellaneous activities through 3rd party apps. Add to that the fact that the cloud solution for remote data storage is becoming more and more practical and you’ve got a very compelling option for multimedia consumption.

My gripes with the above are the following:

• e-reading is still too expensive relative to paperback and library (new books should cost closer to $5 not $10, and physical purchases should come with a free e-copy)
• Netflix and Amazon Instant Video are missing way too many movies for their streaming format offering, and purchasing movies/shows through iTunes is far too expensive, and renting is too restrictive with its viewing windows.
• The standard Amazon Kindle has excellent screen resolution for reading text but not for viewing photos or video. The iPad has excellent screen resolution for viewing photos or video but not for reading text.

While I don’t yet personally own a tablet device of any kind I believe these general issues discussed above will be resolved soon and I am therefore on the cusp of jumping into the market and changing the way I consume multimedia. Is the $300 savings worth it to go with the Kindle Fire and not the iPad? Here are what I view as the biggest considerations when making that decision:

• The Kindle Fire has a surprisingly small screen (7’’ compared to 9.7’’)
• The Kindle Fire lacks a camera and video camera (not a big deal most of the time unless you are hoping to do video chats)
• A purchase of the Kindle Fire is an implicit commitment to Amazon’s online media store and its cloud storage system. A purchase of the iPad is an implicit commitment to Apple’s online media store and its cloud storage system. Both products have some crossover content but both companies are pushing to get you to fully commit to their online media stores by offering free cloud storage, and potentially instant access to files not physically stored on your device.

For me, I have to wait and see how the cloud systems work out and whether the iPad 3 (supposedly coming in Q1 2012) will have Kindle-like screen resolution for reading.

INNOVATION

Sometimes humanity’s innovative advancements amaze me. I marvel at the amazing things that handheld devices or machines or apparatuses can achieve. You need only take a step back and tune out the critical complaints about signal attenuation issues, or how a camera lens isn’t sharp enough at certain ISO levels, or how a certain car doesn’t make the grade on MPG, or whatever and just appreciate the creation for its capabilities to realize how much we have achieved as a race.

Three particular innovations have been on my “mind grapes” lately. Bikes, cameras, and mobile phones.

Sometimes I wonder if I get carried away in my marveling (e.g. I dreamt about buying an expensive DSLR camera last night) and if it’s inappropriate to consider the creations of man’s hands with such awe and respect. Should I renounce manmade innovations and modern innovations and spend my energy reading, or conversing, or contemplating nature? I say no. While there is always the risk of becoming too extreme in my affection for innovations, on balance most of these items, and particularly the 3 listed above, if anything help to accentuate and facilitate these more virtuous acts. I’ll spare you specific examples of how this is the case.

Bike
With bikes, I’m not really sure why I’ve been so impressed with them. I have been riding my bike a lot more lately I guess and one day I just realized that they are really great. My bike enables me to use native energy and inputs to get from one place to another. It helps me to slow life down (relative to the car) and appreciate my surroundings and be more aware of the sun and wind and rain. Yet it doesn’t force me to slow life down so much (see walking: boring) that I get hot and bothered, and frustrated at the slow speed.

I own the Specialized Crosstrail which you can get for like $500. It’s a hybrid which means it has shocks on the front wheels and it seats you more erect than you would be on a road bike. But it also has road bike features and can go faster than a mountain bike on pavement and is good for commuting. If you live in an area where work is relatively close and the city has set up bike paths or there are trails nearby then I would definitely recommend getting a decent bike.

Camera
My super slim Sony Cybershot T7 fell out of my pocket and died on me on a recent trip to Israel. I was a bit sad but I like to reflect more on the good times we had together. R.I.P. T7, or at least until I sell you for parts on ebay. We had a good run but now I’m pretty excited as I shop for a new camera. Do I go with a big DSLR and risk looking like a dweeb when I carry it around my neck? Do I go with a more compact camera and sacrifice those really cool action shots? We’re expecting a girl in October and I want to be well equipped to capture the moments. I saw this picture the other day on wsj.com and it got me thinking, how do I manage to get a picture like that?

I’ve been doing some research and I’m leaning towards the Canon Powershot S90 ($350) since it got very high marks on cnet.com and it was recommended by Ken Rockwell as “The World’s Best Digital Pocket Camera.” If I don’t go with that one I might go with the Nikon D5000 DSLR ($650). One other question I have is should I be worried about buying a refurbished camera?

Whatever I decide, I’m glad to live in a time when cameras are as available as they are and are by and large all capable of capturing powerful, memorable, emotional images that can be enjoyed for years to come. I just need to learn how to take such pictures…

Mobile Phone
Coming from a guy who didn’t own his first mobile phone until February 19, 2005 as a senior in college, I am a big proponent of owning a high quality cell phone. I am also a big proponent of not taking on fixed monthly bills when you haven’t first satisfied the more primary concerns: rent, food, gas, etc., which is why I don’t see the previous sentence as inconsistent or ironic. I recently paid $20 or so for a prepaid in Guatemala with a couple hundred minutes and then threw the phone away when the trip was over. Who would have ever thought a cellular phone would be so expendable?

After owning the very reliable Sanyo MM-8300 - red (Sprint) for about 2 years I upgraded to the iPhone when it first came out. I loved it so much that I didn’t even care that they overcharged me by like $200 when they first sold it—but I didn’t complain when they gave me a $200 certificate either. Since then I’ve upgraded a time or two and now own the iPhone 4. Of all the innovations I am amazed by, this one takes the cake. The iPhone is not only a product of creative genius it is also a source and a platform for it thanks to the countless apps and open software developer kits so that all can contribute. The designers at Apple may be a bit eccentric and arrogant or whatever but the fusion of technologies both digital (phone, computer, camera, iPod, compass, voice recorder, and on and on) and analog (bullet proof glass, touch screen with heat and tactile sensors, smart antenna, retina display, etc.) is a modern day masterpiece. I have had little or no reception issues with my iPhone 4 and whatever problems it may have are vastly outweighed by the conveniences it offers.

Here are some reasons why you must own an iPhone (budget permitting):

• iBooks (as well as the Gospel Library app) paired with the retina display resolution is quite good and I have been pleasantly surprised by how much I have enjoyed reading on the iPhone as a sort of handheld kindle.
• You’ll always have a high quality camera and an HD video recorder in your pocket.
• You can fill all your down time with either entertainment (card games, web browsing, social media, podcasts and other multimedia, etc.) or something productive (read books, scriptures, write emails, language training, etc.).
• The Voice Command function has proved to be very useful as I’ve learned to wield it to make calls and play specific music while it stays in my pocket (great for biking or running or for wearing skinny jeans).
• It doubles as a mirror.
• It’s just a fun experience and it enriches life.

If humanity stretches roughly from 3000 BC to 2000 AD it’s pretty fascinating to think that these 3 innovations (bikes, cameras, and mobile phones) didn’t show up until early 1800’s, early 1800’s, and late 1900’s, respectively.
Of all the eras I could have been born in, I’m glad I was born in an era where I can own a bike, camera, and iPhone.

i Year Anniversary

It was exactly one year ago when I sprang for the revolutionary mobile device that is the iPhone. Overall, the experience has been excellent. Having a calendar, a notepad, a picture viewer, instant email, web and map access, and other features that are both productive and enjoyable in their use make it a life-changing, life-improving technological advancement. And that’s saying nothing of the impressive iPod integration, the video capabilities, media streaming, and the actual phone itself. I have definitely been a satisfied customer, but there have been a few annoyances:

Obnoxiously soft speakerphone
Recessed headphone jack
Occasionally inaccurate “Current Location” on Google Maps
Problems crashing to the home screen when using iPod and Safari simultaneously.

But now that the iPhone 3G is out, I imagine all these items will be resolved. I may need to get one. I’m not certain on the crashing issue but I know the headphone jack issue has been resolved, the GPS will be a big plus on the new model, and the volume on the speakerphone I know has at least been addressed.

By my calculations the new iPhone will cost an extra $360 over the course of 24 months ($10 extra for data, and $5 extra to maintain 200 text messages). And with the 1st generation used iPhone fetching upwards of $300 on ebay (people are still willing to pay top dollar for last year’s model due to it’s ability to be unlocked), it’s hard to stand pat. My only question is whether or not it’s worth it to hold out for a 32GB model.

PS3 v. Xbox 360 v. Nintendo Wii

*Picture not to scale

I realize that my review on the latest series of new gaming systems might seem a little late but now that each console has had a chance to stabilize, and get some games to back it up, and now that you can actually find and purchase the various systems, I think now is as good a time as any to review and compare the competing models.

Playstation 3: The sexiest of its class. You could almost justify shelling out the $600 for the Play-trois just for the aesthetical value it will bring to your room. Not to mention, a Sony/Samsung/Panasonic Blu-Ray disc player with specs essentially identical to those of the PS3’s is likely to run for somewhere between $800 and $1000. Free access to the online network as opposed to $50/year for a slightly superior online community with the Xbox 360 is good, I guess, but the real deterrent seems to be the fact that game manufacturers haven’t kept pace with the Sony system itself by providing us with games that really showcase the PS3’s capabilities, and in the cases in which they have, it has only been through games that aren’t especially fun—war games and the like. The PS3 is purportedly much quieter and runs cooler than its 360 counterpart and generates power from a single cord (no unwieldy 360 behemoth power brick). The SixAxis controller with tilt capabilities in select games is a nice bonus, but still does not measure up to the Wii’s motion-sensitive interface.

Xbox 360 Elite: You have to go with the Elite if you are in the Xbox camp. Only an $80 premium ($480) and it comes equipped with an HDMI connector and a hard drive upgrade from 20GB to 120GB. The big plus for the 360 is its extensive library of hi-def games. EA’s next-generation-graphics version of FIFA ’07, for example, has a 12-month exclusivity agreement with Microsoft. And the 360 version of Guitar Hero II checks out (I was always bothered that the Xbox version of Dance Dance Revolution plays so differently than the Playstation version). HD DVD’s (similar to Blu-Ray DVD’s, though slightly inferior) can be played on the 360 but only with the purchase of an external HD DVD player which runs for about $200 [frowny face]. But as I mentioned earlier, the 360 offers a portal to a stellar online network and an expansive media hub. Here you can buy TV episodes in hi-def, and rent HD movies (2 weeks, $5-$10), and even download original arcade games in high resolution (e.g. Street Fighter II). This brings us to the heated debate (which my colleague, Trifecta, so eloquently presented in a previous post) of ‘Physical HD versus Digital HD: Which way is the market headed?’. Being, as it is, a Microsoft product, the Xbox 360 doesn’t seem to make any efforts to cooperate with macs. If you’re a PC guy you can wirelessly stream your computer content to the console and play movies/music/slideshows on your TV (a la Apple TV). For me, the big Ace in the hole the Xbox 360 has is that I have friends that own it. If I “join in” as the commercials have instructed, I could instantly be competing or cooperating with a proverbial ‘friend in Vietnam’.

Nintendo Wii: Innocent, clean, YSA enjoyment right out of the box; all for only $250. Where the 360 and the PS3 promote lethargy with their everything-remote system, the Wii requires constant interaction through oft intense hand and arm motions. Wii Sports sounds like a blast but other than that, I don’t see too many titillating titles except for maybe Zelda. I fear that the novelty of this unique console could wear off really fast, but maybe I’m wrong. One big plus, however, is the Virtual Console offered through the Wii Shop Channel. This is the place to go to buy replicated versions of classic NES, Super Nintendo, and N64 games. By simply turning your Wiimote sideways you are ready to knock out Soda Popinski in Mike Tyson’s Punchout or crank a dinger off of B. Sbrhgn in R.B.I. Baseball II. This would be an immediate fix to my brother’s and my NES woes since someone recently sabotaged our player 2 controller and effectively rendered the whole system worthless (we’re now relegated to watching the computer play against itself, and poorly at that—worthless Boggs groundouts become triples in computer play). I’m disappointed that only a select few games offer an online multiplayer option; even the DS Lite allows for Wi-Fi multiplayer on most all of its titles. And the online Wii channels are pretty lame. They offer AP news updates and weekly weather forecasts, but who wants to get their news from Nintendo? I can just picture it: “In today’s news, Luigi is released from prison after his 8-year sentence and Princess is enjoying her stay in the Koopa Beach Promises rehab center”.

So what’s my recommendation? I think the only feasible solution is to buy all three systems. PS3 for the Blu-Ray and the tech specs, Xbox 360 for the library of games and the fantastic online network, and the Wii because you can’t afford not to, and it’s so small and cute.

Admittedly, I’m getting pretty close to buying the Xbox 360 Elite but I’m curious to see what my readers have to say so please, chime in on the ‘Comments’ link below.

Apple TV - A must have??

Apple TV

NY Times Review

• $300
• 40GB of memory
• Streams up to 5 other computers
• Brings iTunes to your HDTV

I love the concept and I'm a huge proponent of non-physical collections (except for baseball cards) but at least in my case, I'm not on board until iTunes begins offering 720 resolution HD movies, TV shows, etc. Why exclude non-HD households from the market (apple TV doesn't communicate with standard TV sets) if you don't even offer HD programs? I'm sure it's just a matter of time before high-res programming becomes available. Apparently video recording capabilites are on the horizon as well. Intriguing, but on the Buy/Wait/Don't Buy scale, I'm giving it a "Wait".