Going Indoor Over-The-Air (OTA) DTV in Fargo

In the days of analog TV and wood siding, we had problems getting all stations on all TVs in our house. When we got steel siding in 2003, we also got economy cable, recognizing that the reception situation would likely get worse. While I've had interest in going OTA and cord cutting for a while, recent changes in billing from our cable company have heightened the interest. Every TV beyond the first two is an additional $60/year.

We aren't quite ready to cut the cord. Live NFL football, Wheel of Fortune, and some other programming isn't available streaming. Also, the incremental cost of upgrading our internet from DSL is about the same as our economy cable bill. Without the internet upgrade, we can't do more than one video stream at a time, particularly HD programming.

Besides indoor antennas, other solutions include one on the roof or one in the attic. For various (weak) reasons, they aren't  my preferred approach.

The first step for both indoor and outdoor antennas is to identify the location of the transmitters relative to your location and their estimated signal strength. This information is available from an FCC web site . From our house, FOX is at 4:00, ABC and PBS are at 10:00, and CBS and NBC at 11:00 in the figure below. Distances are 25 miles or more.

In reading antenna reviews, there are a lot of comments about how low cost antennas work better than more expensive antennas for some people. Location of an indoor antenna is also critical due to signal physics such as reflection, diffraction, and more. The physics curious can read more . The good news is that the ghosting experienced by analog TV is eliminated in digital. The bad news is that some of the signal strength issues are counter-intuitive and some are seasonal as roofs get snow, trees gain and shed leaves, and cars come and go in driveways.

My personal preference is to avoid buying something that doesn't work and having to return it to the store. Another is to get solutions which are robust. This led to my selection of a wall-mountable, amplified, omni-directional antenna, the Mohu Leaf 50 Amplified Antenna via Amazon.com. There were good reviews for the antenna and I liked that it incorporated military signal processing technology.

Once the antenna arrived, I started methodically trying it in several possible TV locations. With cable, one locates the TV near a wall jack. In OTA, the placement of the TV is where the acceptable station list is available. For example, we could get by with one station in the kitchen, if it was the right station. Unfortunately that station was not among the four (all PBS) we could receive there. At the sixth antenna location, we got all 12 known Fargo DTV stations (WDAY x 4 including CW, KXJB, KVLY, MeTV, KVRR, and KFME x 4). That location makes sense in terms of height near the ceiling and a steel-siding-free line-of-site view of the three transmitter locations. The process of testing a location is simple : temporarily locate the antenna (eg taped to the wall), attach the antenna to the TV, run the TV channel scan, and check the results for stations received and picture quality.

A couple things I liked about the Leaf 50 antenna were that it is omni-directional (ie it receives stations in any direction relative to it) and that it mounts flat on the wall or other surfaces. This makes it easier to get it closer to the ceiling where we generally got more stations. Because the antenna is amplified and the tall trees near our house are gone, I'm hopeful that we won't have seasonal issues. Another variable for us will be snow on the roof. Currently there is little to none, but it can get two feet deep.

Our plan is to use our allotted cable boxes where OTA signals don't meet our needs, such as the PBS-only kitchen and the below ground family room. Success with the antenna may provide more confidence in a rooftop solution at some point. The main pro is that there is a single, typically more expensive, antenna to feed our eight wall jacks. The cons include an antenna exposed to the elements, losing a few cable channels like CSPAN and community access, and having TVs located close to wall jacks.

Update after over a year of experience : The antennas have generally worked well for us. There has been weak or lost signal from rain, snow on the roof, vegetation on the trees, and our artificial Christmas tree being set up. The solution has been to move the antenna to get a stronger signal for the station we are watching, but typically at the cost of loosing other stations. In my den, I have the antenna tacked on a bulletin board which makes it easy to move the antenna.

The Naked Tablet : Accessorizing Noel's Kindle HD 8.9

I ordered by Kindle Fire HD 8.9 last December when it was on sale for a day at $259. I find 7 inch tablets too small for my big fingers and 10.1 inch tablets were still typically over $400. Thus the 8.9 inch screen at $259 seemed a reasonable compromise of price and size. I also purposed to keep my costs down for the total purchase price on the device, wanting to move to something larger and faster in as little as two years. The easiest way to do enable that is to not spend a lot of money accessorizing it: hence the post title, "The Naked Tablet".

As for the tablet itself, it has worked out OK for me. My main complaint is the lack of Google apps like Google Earth and Google Maps via the Amazon app store. I could "side load" them, but don't want to get a non-standard configuration. The Kindle Fire HD also doesn't support Flash.

A typical recommended configuration would include the customized case for $55 and a screen protector for $20, bringing the total price up another $75. I decided to go naked without a screen protector and also seek a lower cost case and accessories that could be reused with a future tablet of a different size. What I've bought for my tablet so far as accessories are

$10  Kindle charger (not included in the box and typically $20 when not on sale)
$13  Case Logic case (Amazon Basics also have some affordable ones)
$11  Tablet stand from Amazon Basics
$14  Stylus (actually I got this earlier for my Smart phone)
$  8  HDMI cord from Amazon Basics

The stereo speakers on the Fire HD are fairly good, so I haven't seen a need to use an external set of speakers when listening to music in the Digital Den. The 1920 x 1080 display is great.

My main use this past winter and spring has been email, Facebook, Pandora, and checking weather. I hope to do more reading as we move into summer. Like all tablets, it isn't a stellar display in bright sunlight, but I do have a Kindle with e-Ink for outdoor reading. Page refreshes hesitate at times, but overall aren't bad.

In general, the device has met my cost/performance expectations. The 10.1 inch tablets have been falling in price, so I'm not sure what I would consider the cross-over point for getting a comparable 10.1 instead of the 8.9 Fire HD. Probably at $300.

Noel's Christmas 2012 Tablet Guide

Quite a bit has happened in the market place since my earlier 2012 blogs on tablets. I've been asked about what I like these days and provide an answer below.

Windows 8 provides an opportunity to have a common user interface across one's laptop, tablet, and phone. That comes at the expense of learning a new user interface on the laptop (though there is a legacy interface available, but that defeats the point of a common interface). It would also be nice if the data sharing was close to seamless between devices. I've started using Dropbox for that purpose between WIndows 7 laptop, iPad, and Android phone. For me it's too early to tell it Windows 8 is worth migrating to from Apple or Android.

The 4th generation iPad is 4 times faster then the gen 1 device my wife has and is twice as fast as gen 2 and gen 3. The retina display is nice and the number of customized tablet applications is greater than for Android.. I don't like the iPad's continued lack of Flash support. The iPad mini failed to impress me relative to Android offerings.

I'm not a big fan of 7" screens since my eyes and fat fingers prefer a 9-10" screen and because I've got a smart phone with a fairly big screen. I've been liking my Samsung Galaxy S III phone with its 4.8" display relative to the 3.5" display on my previous phone for viewing and typing. I've also liked my Otter Box Defender case for the phone. A 7" screen does not add much screen size and no resolution relative to that device.

In the 9" screen and larger category, I've got three Android favorites.

For value ($299) and media support, I like the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9". It has been announced, but is not shipping for a few more weeks. I would not buy one until at least the end of the year. This is so I can see user reviews in addition to the specs and advertising.

For speed and screen resolution, I like the newly announced Nexus 10. It is simply the latest and greatest.

For usefulness as a tool, I like the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1. The key feature is an S-pen and apps which support its capabilities.

I currently don't have a compelling reason to get one rather than the others. If I do get one sooner rather than later "just because", I would lean to the Kindle Fire HD 8.9. This is due to the lower price with the idea that the money saved would be a start towards an upgrade sooner rather than later.

If one is looking to replace a laptop with a tablet, an external keyboard is essential for doing large amounts of text input. One should also confirm that the on-board data storage and cloud storage will be adequate for one's needs.

What's on Noel's Droid?

My new phone has shipped, so thought I would share my inventory of what is on my current Motorola Droid phone as I prepare for the transition.

Home Screen

• Verse-of-the-day Widget
• Weather Channel
• Clock
• Facebook
• Email
• Phone
• Contacts
• Browser
• Camera

Right + 1

• Google search bar
• Magnify - turns phone into magnifying glass
• Converter
• Documents-To-Go
• RealCalc
• Olive Tree Bible Reader
• USA Today
• Dictionary

Right + 2

• Wireless/GPS/Illumination control bar
• Cardio Trainer - distance, speed, and other stuff when I am not on a standard route
• Waze -  a groupware vehicle navigation app similar to Google Maps
• Android Sensor Box - access to raw data from phone sensors
• Speed Test - measures speed of internet connection
• Wifi Analyzer - shows signals, channels, and strengths
• Wifi Buddy - shows networks and their attributes
• GPS logger
• My Tracks - record route using GPS
• Google Maps
• GPS Test - handy for getting at GPS info

Left + 1

• Pandora
• Rhapsody
• Music (mp3 player)
• Play Store
• Amazon app store
• Amazon.com
• Amazon Kindle
• Audible - audio book player
• Redbox
• Netflix
• Gallery
• Fandango
• Flixster
• Internet Movie Database (IMDB)

Left + 2

• TM world - world clock
• Car locator
• FlightStats Light
• Places Directory
• Urban Soon

Notable but not on a page

• Advanced Task Killer
• Astro file manager
• Droid Light
• Google Sky Map
• QuickDic - foreign language dictionaries
• Taxi Magic
• Google Translate
• YouTube

Keeping Unlimited Data, Getting a New Phone

A few weeks ago, Verizon Wireless announced a radically different pricing plan which goes into effect June 28th, 2012. In this post, I'll profile our family situation, walk through the analysis of staying with our current plan, and discuss my new phone selection.

We have been on an older Family Share 700 plan which runs just under $120/month for my smartphone, two basic phones, and unlimited data on the smartphone. This includes a discount through my employer of about $12/month. Thus the full charge for the plan is about $130/month. We have typically added our daughters to our plan with a basic phone for $9.99 a month. My youngest daughter just got her license this week. No one else in the family wants a smartphone just now, but I could see us needing more minutes or shared data if the girls want a smart phone when they go to college. My oldest daughter will start college in fall of 2013.

The new plan essentially would change the following for us:

• Talk time and text is unlimited (vs limited now, but we go over our minutes maybe once a year)
• Data costs are tiered (vs unlimited now)
• Data is sharable (vs unshareable now)
• Devices such as laptops and tablets can be tethered to the phone (vs not available now)
• To keep unlimited data in the future, customer pays full list price for the phone.

The lowest cost a basic phone can be added to a new plan is $30/month, so my younger daughter keeps her TracFone and won't be joining us on Verizon.

As noted in previous posts, I have been holding out for the rumored Samsung Galaxy Journal which is the Verizon version of the Galaxy Note on AT&T. Two things I like about the Note are the S Pen (stylus) and the 5.3 inch 1280 x 800 resolution display. 

My current phone is an original Motorola Droid which has not been performing as well on newer apps with its slow (500 MHz) single core processor and limited (500 MB) of RAM. While it still gets through the day on a single charge, battery life will become an issue over the next year or so. It runs Android 2.3.

So against that backdrop, what if I just wait for the Galaxy Note which may or may not move from rumor to product?

If I pay full price list price for the phone and keep my unlimited data, I will pay about $500 more than the subsidized price and may need to change plans in a year anyways if a new collegiate opts for a smartphone. That $500 over 12 months is $41/month.

If I switch plans now with my 2 GB or less monthly data usage, our three phone plan costs us each month

$40 smartphone + (2 x $30 basic phone) + $60 data + $30? taxes & fees = $190/month.

So with the new pricing, our monthly bill would go up $30 to $60 per month. We don't need the unlimited talk minutes or text messages. The tethering would be nice, but isn't essential.

So what if a basic phone is upgraded to a smartphone? Under the current plan, the cost would go up by $30/month for the data and the minutes would still be shared. In the new plan, assuming an extra 2 GB were needed, the cost goes up $10/month for the smart phone and $10/month for the added 2 GB of data. Thus the more smart phones, tablets, and devices on the plan, the better the new plan looks.

Thus, sticking with my current plan is cheaper for our current use patterns and will be re-evaluated when someone wants a smartphone.

Given the age of my current phone, I wanted to upgrade while I could still retain unlimited data AND pay the subsidized price on the phone. I researched a number of phones including

• HTC Rezound
• Motorola Droid RAZR and Motorloa Droid RAZR MAXX
• Samsung Galaxy Nexus
• Samsung Galaxy S III

And the winner is....Samsung Galaxy S III 32 GB in Blue. Features that I liked included

• Quad core processor
• 2 GB of RAM
• 1280 x 720 4.8 inch Super AMOLED display
• 2100 mAhr battery (4G LTE takes more power than 3G. Earlier 4G phones have smaller batteries.)
• 8 MB camera
• Samsung
• Android 4.0
• C Pen which could give me much of what I'm looking for from the S Pen on the Note

I've started looking at accessories. The C pen I've mentioned. Cases are important. When I get this phone, the plan is to retire the failing Palm Tungsten E2 which is been in my front left pocket for many years and the Droid which has been on my right hip for over two years. The case(s) I select may depend on where I will carry my phone. I suspect that a larger phone on my hip may get bumped or caught on more things than my 3.5 inch phone, but it is a very clean and convenient place to carry a phone. The S III is about the size of my current Tungsten case. Right now I am leaning slightly towards a Commuter series case from OtterBox. 

While I'm not planning to buy one at this time, there is a class of phone and tablet back-up batteries which send power to the device via the USB port. Getting one of these general purpose devices makes a lot more sense than buying a second device-specific battery.

My new phone is scheduled to ship July 11th. I worked with Andrew at the 19th Avenue North Verizon store and found him good to work with.

Technology Reflections During the Transit of Venus

Am watching coverage of the transit, the last of my lifetime, as observed at the Mount Mauna Kea observatory in Hawaii and streamed to our iPad via nasa.gov.

At the last Venus transit in 2004, I had found a quote from William Harkness, the director of the US Naval Observatory in 1882:

‎"We are now on the eve of the second transit of a pair, after which there will be no other till the twenty-first century of our era has dawned upon the earth, and the June flowers are blooming in 2004. When the last transit season occurred the intellectual world was awakening from the slumber of ages, and that wondrous scientific activity which has led to our present advanced knowledge was just beginning. What will be the state of science when the next transit season arrives God only knows. Not even our children's children will live to take part in the astronomy of that day. As for ourselves, we have to do with the present ..." William Harkness, the Director of the U.S. Naval Observatory, 1882


Back in 2004, I had intentionally gone out to our garden and taken pictures of my daughters with the June blooms.

I had also reflected on the technology of the 1882. The telegraph was the main long distance communication means at the time. The telephone was 6 years old, Edison's light bulb less than 2 years. Motion picture cameras were just being developed. The electric car had been shown the year before but a car with a petroleum-powered engine was still 3 years off. Harkness would not live to see an airplane or listen to a voice on radio.

This evening I started watching the streaming coverage at work and then was going to watch it on my Android smartphone while walking home. 3G data speed wasn't good enough. When I got home, I grabbed the iPad and streamed the coverage to that device over our home wi-fi from the DSL broadband. One, two, three, four, five technology changes in our home technology since 2004.

What other technologies have changed? Analog broadcast TV went away. We've gotten some flat screen TVs as our old cathode ray tube units have failed. Star Trek is available 24/7 streaming from Netflix. Our computers have multi-core processors. Our cars have navigation systems built in or from our Garmin or from  my smartphone.

The girls in the photo have grown into young women and I'm seriously middle aged. I won't speak for my wife ;-)

The next transit of Venus is in 2117. Unless people start living well past 100, it will be my elderly grandchildren and their offspring that may witness the event. I wish them God's grace and blessing. I would also wish them fine June blooms except that it will be December.

Still Waiting for the Right Tablet

I'm still waiting for the right tablet computer for myself. As noted in previous posts, I use a laptop with breakfast tray in bed, have access to my wife's iPad 1, and last August got a "keyboard" Kindle for use on bright summer days. The tablet is a want more than a need and one I am willing to wait for.

While the new iPad 3 has the 3 megapixel Retina Display and quad core graphics processor, that is not enough to counter the difficulty in moving files on and off the device as well as absence of Flash support.

Windows 8 is currently planned for October release and has the potential to integrate across laptop, tablet, and phone. Given the small market share Windows tablets and laptops currently command, it's not clear that the integration benefit will offset the reduced number of apps due to the small market share.

Android 4 (aka Ice Cream Sandwich) is still my platform of choice, if I had to chose today, and would be resident on Samsung hardware: Smart TV, tablet, and phone.

The phone would be the Samsung Journal (Verizon), due out this summer, which is a rebranded Galaxy Note (AT&T). I light the bright 1200 x 800 5.3" Super AMOLED display, dual core processor, and the S-pen (evolved stylus). I like pens going back to my Palm Pilot PDAs.

The tablet would be the announced, but not released, Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 IF/WHEN it has a Tegra 3 quad core processor and a 1920 x 1080 display in place of the current dual core processor and 1200 x 800 display. The ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity Series has those two features, but not the S-pen and integration with the Smart TV.

The Samsung Smart TVs have the ability to stream content to mobile devices such as the tablet and phone. Thus one can be watching a program on the big screen and move to another part of the house and continue watching the same content.

For anyone wanting to see this in person, Best Buy has the Samsung Note phone, Galaxy Tablet (but not the enhanced Note, just the current tablet.), and Smart TV on display. They also have the New iPad, so one can check out the high res display.

In terms of timing, I might be ready for a phone upgrade late summer after my risk of falling into a creek is past. I would prefer to drown or otherwise break my old phone rather than a new one. The tablet is pending Samsung's release of what I spec'ed. The TV depends on when the family chooses to upgrade TVs or our 1992 set bites the dust.

More Choices in Android Tablets

by Dakota Noel

This afternoon I swung by Best Buy for some hands-on with Android tablets new and old. I'm still waiting for the  tablets which will be coming out later this year with the Tegra 3 quad-core processor and  Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android. The current generation typically has the Tegra 2 dual core and the Honeycomb version of Android. Screens are 10.1" with 1280 x 800 resolution.

There is some differentiation amongst the current generation: The Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy, Acer Iconia, and the new Toshiba Thrive. The Galaxy is the lightest and has the most vivid screen, rivaling the iPad 2. Like the iPad 2, the lightness, about 1.3 lbs,  is achieved at the expense of having few built in ports. On the other end of the spectrum, the Thrive weighs in at 1.6 lbs, but comes with a full sized HDMI port, a full sized and a mini USB, and an SD card slot for memory expansion.

At this point in time, the Toshiba Thrive would be my preference given the number of connections. The Acer Iconia second for the same reason.

A while back I had been wanting a higher resolution screen as well, but with my two hands-on session with the tablets, I don't think it buys me much with a 10.1" screen. A tablet with a 12" screen, 1920 x 1080 resolution, a 1.3 lb weight, and lots of ports would be sweet. 1280 x 800 on 10.1" doesn't do eBooks quite right for side-by-side book pages.

iPad 2 vs Android Tablet : Still Undecided

by Dakota Noel

Last night I got a call from a friend who is in the market and I had to report that I'm still undecided/uncommitted in making a tablet choice. There have been some developments which have added to my "wait" status in addition to things which I've written about earlier.

* Current tablets have dual core processors, but the Tegra 3 quad core is coming with even better performance.

* Samsung has announced 300 dpi 10.1" displays with 2560 x 1600 resolution. Since eBooks are one of my driving apps for owning a tablet, a print quality color display is significant.

* Android has announced the next version of Android, Ice cream Sandwich. It is due out in Q4 2011.

Also notable is the new Samsung 10.1" Android Galaxy tablet, but I want the above.

So

Dear Santa,

    Please send me an Android tablet with a Tegra 3 processor, a 2560 x 1600 display, and Ice Cream Sandwich.

Noel

Second Generation Tablets : iPad 2 or Xoom?

I haven't had hands-on experience with either device, but I have been watching developments closely since I'm interested in getting a tablet at some point in time. I have no hurry since I can usually borrow my wife's iPad, but I would like to take the tablet with me for travel, work, etc.

Xoom is better for its openess from being an Android device, but there aren't many apps which take advantage of the larger screen at this time. The larger screen is 1280 x 800, compared to iPads 1024 x 768. I like resolution and I like size. The Xoom rivals the Kindle DX for resolution. The Xoom display is also larger diagonally than iPad, but the iPad 2 is lighter and thinner. Ipad doesn't support Flash.

At this point, I'm planning to wait and watch: to read more hands-on reviews, to try both devices at stores, and to watch for compelling apps (eg Kindle). There are also rumors of a higher resolution iPad coming later this year as well as the next version of the Android operating system ("Ice Cream").

iPhone or Android Phone?

I was recently asked that question by someone who was in the market. It's really hard to recommend one over the other right now.

I've been generally happy with my Motorola Droid over the past year and would get the Motorola Droid X if I had to get something right this instant. A major reason for going with Android then was the availability on Verizon. Now iPhone is available on Verizon and in a recent Best Buy ad, both phones were $199 with qualifying plan.

Back then, some of my preferred applications weren't available for Android but were "coming soon". They've come and the only thing I really miss is accessing work email via Outlook Web Access. That is a decision of my employer for security reasons. Access is possible through a 3rd party $20 app and signing an agreement with my employer which I didn't like. The other app currently missing on Android for me is streaming movies from Netflix, but not as major as work email.

The iPhone has a higher resolution screen than current Android phones, but that is likely to change this year. The Android phones are easier to connect to another computer for transfering data, music, pictures, etc.

iPhone doesn't have and probably never will have support for Flash. Android does.

So those are the significant differences for me.

The IOS4.2 Upgrade for iPad

by Dakota Noel    This week's release of IOS 4.2 for iPad was just in time for my wedding anniversary. While I'm sure my wife would really like a husband upgrade which would provide multitasking capability such as "talk and drive", the ability to store papers in file folders, and a "where's my husband?" app, I thought an upgrade to her iPad which provided similar enhancements was the next best thing in gifts.

Our iPad rarely gets docked to the PC and iTunes, so about 3 hours were needed to upgrade iTunes to version 10.1, do synchs, and do back-ups. This worked out OK since I got it started and then went to watch a movie.The iPad/PC where still churning away when the movie was done and I went to bed.

When attempting to actually do the OS upgrade this morning, I got a warning that there were files on the iPad which had not been backed up. I poked around to see what they may be, didn't identify any, and went ahead with the upgrade.

To get the upgrade going, the iPad needs to be connected to the PC (or Mac) running iTunes 10.1. With my 1.5 Mbs DSL connection, it took a little over an hour to download the upgrade, another four minutes to extract and install, ending in a restart of the iPad (BTW the iTune 10.1 upgrade requires a restart of the PC). After the iPad restarted, it went into a synch operation which appeared to hang up. I restarted iTunes and it re-hung. Tried restarting the iPad and it was hung. Used Task manager to shut down iTunes a second time and went on-line looking for help. I noticed the iPad screen went blank, restarted the iPad, and it seemed happy. Restarted iTunes and the synch went quickly and OK. I seem to be good for the moment. There is online support if you have a different problem during or after the upgrade.

The iPad IOS 4.2 manual is at support.apple.com/manuals/ and is just under 200 pages in length. There are only a few minor cosmetic changes to the UI from IOS 3.2, so minimal training should be needed for my wife. Pandora does multitask with Safari, email, and Kindle.

With IOS 4.2 installed and apparently working, I downloaded the "Find my iPhone" app from Apple which is one of the iPad benefits from the upgrade (I suppose if the husband has the iPad it would provide the "Find my Husband" functionality mentioned at the start of this post). You need to set up a free "MobileMe" account and link it to the device. Instructions are given as part of the FindMyiPhone app install from the app store.

With MobileMe set up and "use current location" enabled, the iPad was located. Since our iPad is wi-fi only, the localization was not great...within half a block. But still, how do they know my location that accurately using wi-fi through my home wireless access point connected to DSL? Is it traceable to a "junction box" on a nearby telephone pole?

The Coming of the Android Tablets

Last Sunday, very quietly in a number of flyers in the Sunday newspaper, the arrival of the Android tablet computers was announced. This week they occupy half of page 18 in the Best Buy Ad, but I'm not adding any I've seen to my 2010 Christmas list.

One, like Steve Jobs, can argue that the 7" displays are in the ugly spot between not being as big as an open book or as small as a smart phone. More concerning to me is the lack of resolution on the screens: 1024 x 600 on the Samsung Galaxy Tab, for example. The current versions of the Android OS won't support higher resolutions like 1200 x 768 which is where I'm at for the spec of the tablet I would like to have (iPad is at 1024 x 768 and iPod Touch is at 960 x 640 on a 3.5" screen)  . This is mainly for eBook reading a la Kindle DX's 1200 x 824. Thus, I'm holding out for a winter release of Android 3.0 which will support the higher resolution and look nice on a 9.7" or larger screen. Bonus points for a USB port or three and a 1.5 GHz processor. If the Gen 2 iPad had those features, it would also be worth considering. Maybe in time for my spring birthday....

Notable in the Best Buy ad today was the Huawei Ideos S7 tablet for its $299.99 price. On the downside was the 800 x 480 screen resolution which is comparable to my droid phone. No word on processor speed, on-board memory, etc. This leads to one of my pet peeves with smartphones and tablets which is how hard it is to find that sort of basic information, if it is listed on a web site. Companies: please note there are sophisticated buyers out there.

A phone which is ... a phone

I swung by the Verizon Wireless store in the mall today to pick up a phone and add a third line. Now that daughter T has a license and winter is approaching, we wanted to get a floater phone that she and her sister can use as needed. The phone is to be used as a phone: no texting, no email, no web surfing, no apps, etc. Just a device which can be used for kids to reach parents and parents can use to reach kids. There aren't many devices  which fit that bill anymore.

After checking in, I had 15 minutes to wait for a person to help me. That gave me time to look at all the smart phones in addition to the 3 basic models. I had previously decided on the LG Accolade which my wife has had since last spring. The other two models didn't change my mind. As for the smart phones, the droid X is still at the top of the list of what I would get today for myself.

It then took 30 minutes to go through the up, down, and side sales pitches; add a third line to the account; and activate the phone. That seemed like a long time to me. Once home, I entered some key ICE (In Case of Emergency) numbers and then sent it with my daughter to a birthday party. We needed to contact her about a left item only to be routed to voice mail. She doesn't know the voicemail code. We still have some bugs to work out of the system.

The Movie Experience de Jour

by Dakota Noel

With Blockbuster Video filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, it is probably worth noting the ending of the video store S-curve as other means provide the delivery of movie content on the upside of their own curves. The S-curve for video stores started in the early 1980s with the availability of VHS tapes. Rental stores popped up which not only rented movies, but the players to play the videos. Economies of scale for negotiating deals with movie companies for titles, dealing with real estate, marketing etc allowed Blockbuster to grow and thrive from the opening of its first store in 1985 until now, 25 years later.

Enter the DVD and the internet for ordering in the late 1990s. Add in two pieces of Netflix patent genius: First, a patented design of the mailer which keeps the DVD from being under the stamp for cancellation and allows the disc to travel each way for an ounce of first class postage. Compare this to almost $4 each way for a VHS tape. The second was a business method for making the most frequent viewers have a delay in getting the next DVDs. This prevents, or at least mitigates, the monthly fee for the heaviest users from being eaten up in postage and handling. This patent significantly impacted others like Blockbuster, Amazon, and Walmart who wanted to enter the space, but couldn't throttle the heaviest users.

Multiply the late 1990s dial up speed from 56 kbs to a late 2000s 1.5 mbs or better broadband connection, add in low cost disk storage, and we have streaming video. This has been on the horizon for quite a while and Netflix knew it had to plan for the eventuality when its mailer patent and business method patents would be made irrelevant. It saw the web experience including recommender software as being critical to leading in streaming as well as DVD movie distribution.

A few years ago, Netflix even sponsored a $1 million challenge for a recommender system which would improve the quality of recommendations by 10%. It took a few years, but the prize was finally claimed. Netflix has quite a bit of movie viewing data and uses advanced analytics (not just descriptive statististics) to understand viewers and and to better negotiate distribution rights with film companies. This is even more back office technology to support its business mote of largest market share, best analytics, and best user experience. In case you hadn't noticed, I really like Netflix as a business.

So at the end of 2010, my family's movie rentals from a video store or the public library are pretty sporatic: typically a stocking up for a blizzard or winter school vacation. We are down to maybe a DVD a month by mail,  except in the November - March time frame when cold and dark Friday nights are spent watching a movie as a family. Then it is maybe two or three DVDs a month. Finally, with Netflix supported on our laptops, iPod Touch, and iPad, we are streaming more movies to more varied locations like the patio or garage. We've also done a few rentals to the iPad from iTunes which has a nice 30 days to watch, 24 hours once started policy. This works well for vacations when we want something for a rainy day or the airplane, but don't know quite when we'll start viewing.

So with Netflix gobbling away at the high end of the video rental market via DVD-by-mail and streaming video, Redbox has been nibbling away at the low end with its vending machines in stores (eg Hornbachers) and restaurants (eg McDonalds). The brick and mortor costs and video store clerk labor costs are eliminated. They are as or even more convenient than video stores.

Blockbuster faces a shrinking market as a movie distribution channel, it is heavily in debt, and Carl Icahn as a major bind holder will have a major say in what happens next to Blockbuster. If it isn't completely liquidated, it will likely emerge from chapter 11 as a much smaller company with location sin those places where the old model still works: places with low income, low bandwidth, and a desire for more titles than a vending machine can provide. As bandwidth becomes cheaper or at least more available to those with lower incomes, Blockbuster's last haven will disappear and the video store S-curve will be finished.

Music Moves

I've written quite a bit this year on how technology is changing my book experience. This time, I write about some changes in my music experience.

We'll fast forward past vinyl records (1960s), cassette tapes (1970s), and CDs (1980s through now). Entering the 21st century, add the enabling technology of solid state memory in excess of 1 gigabyte, home internet speeds in excess of 1 Mbs, and server farms in the 10s of terabytes. Voila, music one can buy on line, download, and listen to on the go.

OK, that's just mp3s and web sites like iTunes, Rhapsody, and others. What's worth blogging about?

Well, my annual Rhapsody-to-go subscription was coming due and I needed to figure out what to do. Rhapsody is a music subscription service which I subscribed to about 4 or so years ago at a good price which also allowed me to download music to my Sansa mp3 players. I have several play lists and can listen to albums, tracks, artist best-ofs etc. After the initial two years, the subscription price went up and I wasn't taking music-to-go as much as I would have liked.

Enter Pandora radio which is free and with patented technology, can put together play lists which I like better than my few constructed lists. This is due in part to the Pandora music genomes generated for each song and supervised learning of preferences (ie thumbs up or down for songs). The drawback is that I can't listen to specific albums or tracks when I want to. This limits access to favorites and hinders music exploration.

Also enter my Motorola droid phone with data plan which allows me to listen to Pandora and Rhapsody on line as well as on-board mp3s. The on-board mp3s are especially nice for when internet isn't available like on planes or some places I travel.

So Plan A looked like it was going to be to reproduce my few playlists as purchased mp3s, continue with Pandora radio, and drop Rhapsody. Things seemed to be going well for my 1960s and 1970s play list since most of the songs were available as part of "Best of" albums. They have been purchased and downloaded.

Moving on to the 1980s, it turns out I like a few songs from a lot of artists rather than a lot of songs from a few 1970s artists. I've wondered if that reflects a difference in music and talent between the two decades. At any rate, that would require a lot of a la carte track purchases that weren't appealing from an organizational perspective. By searching for tracks on albums, I was reminded how much I like the music exploration feature of Rhapsody.

As the date for non-renewal moved closer, I checked out Rhapsody plans and saw a monthly plan which was less expensive than my currently plan and retained the best of what I liked about Rhapsody. So I switched plans, leaving my music environment as follows:

* A growing number of my legacy CDs have been digitized for use on my Garmin nuiv or my droid phone.
* In the Digital Den, I listen to Rhapsody...either playlists or albums.
* At work and outside the Digital Den, I listen to Pandora radio.
* If Pandora isn't available or I want more control over what I'm listening to, I can listen to Rhapsody or mp3s.
* Driving around Fargo and Moline, I listen to the radio :-O

Life was simpler when books were books...

We take for granted that it took decades if not centuries for the printed book (post Gutenburg) to take its current form with covers, title page, table of contents, chapters, and index. Not only did sequence of big parts have to be decided, but also details like reading from front to back vs back to front.

Given this lengthy evolution, I should not be surprised that books in alternate formats are still evolving and need to have some kinks worked out. The Kindle 2 and Kindle 2 DX from Amazon are probably furthest along this evolution, easily allowing a user to switch from text to audio and back to text very easily.

The task I am trying to support is my wife's consumption of Charles Dicken's book David Copperfield for her next Book Club meeting. The Kindle DX would be the easy way out at a cost of $500 for the reader and book. What I have done, for under $5, is set her up in a variety of text and speech devices and modes. Here is what has worked, so far, and what hasn't.

• The Fargo Public Library provides audiobooks for download via NetLibrary. Key caveat is that they download to Windows Media Player as a temporary file. SAVE IT IMMEDIATELY or risk loosing it when you shift away from Media Player. Very disheartening after a 2 hour download at 1.5 Mbs DSL. The file supposedly has Digital Rights management (DRM), but I haven't seen evidence of it on my PC, Garmin Nuvi 760, or iPod Touch.
  
  
• A great source of public domain audiobooks is librivox.org which has over 2000 titles available in mp3 format, broken into chapters. For my iPod Touch, I got the Audiobooks app from Traveling Classics. Unfortunately, on Saturday June 20th, they had to stop selling it...something to do with being required to only stream audio vs dowloading it onto the device :-/ . I suppose the work around is to download mp3s from librivox.org into an iTunes playlist (but see below).
  
  
• Text is available from Google Books in PDF format and from Standard Works for iPhone (video below). The iPhone/iPod Touch reader has some nice features for annotations, bookmarks, highlighting, etc.
  
  

Once the audio and text versions are in hand, there is a need to easily synch reading and listening. Some observations....

• The NetLibrary audio is in one big file (~750 MB). It becomes crucial that the player be able to stop and resume where you left off. Otherwise, you always have to start at the beginning of the book, which in the case of David Copperfield, is 35-40 hours of listening. The single file also makes it difficult to listen to a chapter/reader a chapter/listen to a third chapter because the file lacks chapter demarcations. The player should support hopping around within the file, not just jump to start of file or jumpt to end of file which works ok for 4 minute songs. Again to summarize: player should have start/resume and within file movement.
  
  
• The librivox recordings are broken up into chapters: one mp3 file per chapter, up to about 30 minutes in length. Same issues here: player should be start/resume and allow you to move around within a file, not just move to the beginning or end.
  
  
• Once the audio chapters are manageable, the synching with text chapters needs to be done. This could be a pain if one medium uses chapter numbers and the other chapter titles. One then needs a Rosetta stone with both chapter numbers and titles. The table of contents from a Google Books edition might be a place to get this.
  
  

Next the book consumer needs to be trained on installed software and hardware and then find the time to listen to the book...which it turns out she isn't liking. At least I've got the capability worked out for summer travels during which are family often listens to audio books,