I twittered a link from CNET earlier today talking about an issue where if live tv shows run over, it tends to play havoc on a DVR recording schedule as the channel does not push an update to the electronic program guide telling it that the following show started late, and hence, the DVR needs to tape a couple of minutes past the regular scheduled end time.
Phew. A sentence that is a paragraph! Huzzah!
Moving right along, that little incident made me think about the few devices that have absolutely changed my life and I decided to list off my recent personal favorites in no particular order:
1. Kindle 2: I am unabashed about the fact that I’m a reader. As far back as I can remember and often to the detriment of my social life, I’ve been wandering around with a book. These days, there’s a element of chic to being an utter bookworm but that aura of cool certainly did not exist when I was younger – it was just what I did.
Having said that, the particular problem I labor under right now, is my wife’s increasing lack of patience around my insisting on buying all my books and additionally having to buy more and more shelf space in order to store them all. In New York, this has resulted in us having a less than optimal space situation.
So, while I have been carefully watching the ebook scene, my internal jury was definitely out on what I’d seen and it wasn’t until my kindle2 arrived that I finally experienced a full-fledged ebook experience. I absolutely adore it. There have been other wonderful reviews of the book. However, my favorite point within any review was made by Steven B. Johnson, author and entrepreneur who writes in his blog :
“7. When he was on John Stewart, Jeff Bezos mentioned that the Kindle was great for one-handed reading, which got a salacious chuckle from the audience (and Stewart), but I think it's best for no-handed reading: i.e., when you're reading while eating a meal, one of life's great pleasures. It's almost impossible to read a paperback while eating, and you really have to snap the spine of a hardcover to get it to lie flat, but the Kindle just sits there on the table helpfully while you cut up your teriyaki.”
Such insight. It almost brought a tear to my eye.
The e-ink screen, the size and portability, that glory that is Whispernet and finally, its compact size and book storing ability has absolutely won me over and to other Readers I say, “Get one, now.”
2. The DVR: Since I graduated college, I am also an unabashed TV watcher and it seems like every year, the stories get more compelling, the actors more riveting and the science more engrossing. My television and sound are now more akin to theaters of yesteryear than the idiotbox of yore and while there is a load of rubbish on the tube – some of which I watch with gleeful abandon, there is also a lot of fantastic content.
I’m trying to remember what life was like before the DVR and it’s really hard to do. In fact I’m even trying to remember what life was like before the dual tuner DVR (for those difficult-to-pick nights) and even that memory is now hazy. Perhaps the fact that I barely, if ever watched TV as a child gives me a viewpoint that is somewhat skewed but my interest in television seems to have mirrored the rapid rise in quality and technology in the last ten years. Ten years from now, my son, Karan, is going to get a giggle when he reads this but I’m sticking with my story.
We have multiple DVR’s and I’m not afraid to say it. Hooray for TV on your own time!
3. The Flip MinoHD: Having been gifted a teched out Sony HDCamcorder before the birth of our son, we felt like we were all set. The camera caught, in stunning HD, his birth and then, with a few exceptions, lay in cold and solitary splendor, it being simply too big to carry everywhere he might pull a Cute. Then, a recent mother in India introduced us to the Flip and we went online, customized a new FlipHD and hit Checkout.
The Flip is now a constant part of our lives. It’s tiny, goes everywhere, is absolutely idiot-proof and takes incredibly sharp 720p video. 5 months later, it rightfully sells to Cisco for a half billion dollars – well played.
I had been recommending the Flip left, right and center and when my cousin flew in from Holland for a few days, I strongly suggested he pick one up. Shortly after, I got a call from him at J&R, asking whether he should buy the Flip or the Sony and I was terribly confused, until I found out that Sony has unleashed a Flip-killer with all the cuteness of a pumpkin pikachu. Imitation truly is the sincerest form of flattery.
I thought about continuing down this path through the ipod and my newest MBPro but really these three stick out as the most life-changing little oddments in my life in the last year. The DVR is much older and yet the massive amount of new HD content made available lately give it a new lease on life-changing. I do love me some Tek-mology.