Jake Ludington’s Digital Lifestyle

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Somewhere in the midst of all the excitement around having a new baby arrive, I missed the memo that I was supposed to be announcing another giveaway yesterday. This time around the giveaway is a brand new Pantech Matrix Pro cell phone (pictured below) paired with a $100 gift card to ATT Wireless, which happens to be the carrier associated with the phone. If you live outside the U.S., you’ll likely want to skip this one, since the phone is locked and the gift card won’t be particularly useful to you either.

I’ve had a review unit of the Pantech Matrix Pro at my house for a couple of months and found the dual slide keyboard to be quite handy. The Matrix Pro does not have a touch screen, but I honestly didn’t miss it, which could be due to my years of using other Windows Mobile phones. I definitely find it easier to enter phone numbers (especially alphanumeric ones) on a traditional telephone keypad rather than attempting to dial from a QWERTY keyboard.

How to enter the giveaway? I’ll keep this one simple – all you have to do is be a fan of my Facebook page (which is different than being a friend on Facebook). I’m doing a talk on Facebook for businesses on May 15 and this will help me with some additional research. The recipient of the phone will be selected at random from all fans (which are listed in the sidebar on the Facebook page) who live in the United States. Be a fan to qualify.

I was originally supposed to announce the conclusion of the giveaway on 1 May 2009, but I’m extending it by 24 hours since I got a late start. You have until 7pm Pacific on 2 May 2009 to qualify. The lucky person who gets the phone will be announced on Facebook, on my blog, on Twitter and in my email newsletter shortly after that.

If you aren’t lucky enough to get the Pantech Matrix Pro I’m giving away, Smart Phone Thoughts, Mobility Minded, The Gadgeteer, Geekzone, Techie Diva, Boston Pocket PC, Gear Diary, MobilitySite, Absolute Windows, Mobilejaw, Experience Mobility, Hack College, and Gear Live will be announcing a new contest each day (in that order) starting today as well.

As part of the promotion, there’s also some special pricing on a Jabra BT4051 headset package not available anywhere else.

UPDATE: Katie Yang was announced to all Facebook fan participants on May 2, 2009

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I placed a 911 call from my house last week (don’t worry, everything is fine now). Nothing unusual about that except that I’m in my 5th year as a Vonage customer. As a VoIP service, Vonage has the advantage of allowing me to connect the hardware to any broadband Internet connection and place or receive calls to the same number. In theory, I could take my Vonage hardware to China, connect it, and receive local Seattle area calls with no one on the other end being wise to my location. The downside to this mobility is needing to manually enter your location into the Vonage system for the purpose of 911 call routing. I had entered the correct address for our old residence, back when 911 support first became available, but hadn’t updated it when we moved to Bainbridge Island in 2008.

This illustrates an important difference between landline phone service and VoIP. With the landline service, the phone carrier knows the exact physical location of call routing because the phone carrier owns the network from their central office all the way up to the point of demarcation on the side of your residence. With a VoIP service like Vonage, all they know is that somewhere out on the Internet there’s a box with a specific IP address and MAC address combination associated with your phone number. When a call comes in to Vonage for your, it routes that call out to your box.

For purposes of 911 service, the phone company provides location information for phone numbers, so the 911 operator can use caller ID functions to identify your location. I believe they still verify this data when you call them, but it is seldom wrong for traditional phone service. With VoIP, the providers rely on you to keep accurate data in the system. Failure to provide accurate data may slow down the ability of the emergency services to respond to your call.

In my case, this simply meant a transfer I barely noticed while on the phone to the Bainbridge Island 911 operator, which translated to quick service in a small community setting. For places with traffic congestion and greater geographic spread, it could be more serious.

Bottom line: take my failure to update the 911 address in my Vonage service as an opportunity to make sure your VoIP phone service is updated with the correct physical address for your location, so that when you need to call 911 they know where to find you.

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Since I’m mentioning my love of the RoboForm password manager again, I thought I’d take a moment and talk about why I don’t use a couple of free alternatives. I don’t pretend to be the world’s leading expert on password security. I do have over 100 passwords I keep track of and I some strong opinions about the most convenient way to manage them.

Each time I mention RoboForm I usually get several emails from people asking why I don’t use the password manager in Firefox or the extremely popular password manager LastPass. Both are free, both use encryption, so why aren’t either of them good enough for me?

Firefox has a solid password manager. I like it in situations where you have less than 20 online passwords to keep track of. I hit a point where I felt like there were too many situations where the Firefox password manager simply didn’t work effectively for my needs. If you use Firefox as your password manager and are happy with it, keep using it! The one thing you should do is set a master password to protect all your Firefox passwords. Not because someone might discover them, but because they aren’t protected with any kind of encryption if you don’t set a master password. If your computer is ever compromised, by a virus or a person, not using the Firefox master password feature means anyone or any software can read your Firefox passwords. The

LastPass is a tougher one for me to defend against. It has features very similar to RoboForm. LastPass works great. LastPass is free! And if you use their online password synchronization feature, you can access your passwords from Mac OS X, Windows, or Linux. Many people I respect use LastPass. The one thing I don’t trust about LastPass is the thing that makes it great – online synchronization. I don’t like the idea of storing my bank password on someone else’s server. The data is encrypted on the LastPass server, so in theory it’s safe, but my credit card account is also supposed to be encrypted and that hasn’t prevented employee theft issues being reported at several banking institutions. The human wildcard of someone possibly accessing and using my data makes the convenience of LastPass to risky in my book. Paranoid? Maybe. For the record, I won’t use the new online version of RoboForm for the same reason.

For the time being, I’m sticking with RoboForm, storing data on a local drive I keep in my possession at all times.

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In January 2008 I tested and disliked the Callwave voicemail transcription feature. From my own testing, the quality of Callwave Vtxt didn’t compare to the far superior PhoneTag (formerly known as SimulScribe). 15 months later, Callwave is ending free transcription as part of their enhanced voicemail solution. Here’s the notice I received from Callwave this morning:

Dear CallWave Customer,

Thank you for using our Vtxt service. It has been our pleasure providing you service and hope you have enjoyed it.

We’re in the midst of restructuring the services we offer and the free transcription feature is no longer cost effective for our company. We regret to inform you that effective immediately this feature is not available and you will no longer receive voicemail transcriptions. You will still receive your enhanced voicemail, the ability to screen you mobile calls, save mobile minutes, manage your messages online and import/export your personal contacts.

If you choose to terminate your account due to this change in service please call 866-470-1989.

Thank you,

CallWave Inc.

If you are currently using the voicemail transcription feature of Callwave, you might try PhoneTag as a replacement.

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I’m a size conscious guy, at least when it comes to gadgets. I want gadgets that don’t waste space, so I’m constantly thinking about how the size of gadgets compare to other things I use regularly, especially as it relates to things I travel with. From a travel size perspective, Kindle 2 is one of the most space conscious gadgets out there. length and width match up with a trade paperback almost exactly. The Kindle 2 is actually thinner than the iPhone. Comparing Kindle 2 to my HP Mini 1000 makes the Netbook looks fat, although I wouldn’t trade the productivity of the HP Mini keyboard for the sake of a more sleek form factor.

Kindle 2 vs. Netbook side view:

Comparing Kindle 2 to various book form factors really shows off how much Amazon thought about design. It puts hardback books to shame in a size comparison. Trade paperback size is right on. And those little mass market paperbacks may be smaller length and width, but I never really liked the hand feel of them. All in, the Kindle 2 is a great form factor for the size conscious traveler.

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PriceGrabber.com recently completed a Consumer Behavior Report titled: Netbook Trends & Solid-State Technology Forecast. The report is based on a survey of 1,545 US online users of Pricegrabber.com conducted from January 6 to January 14.

The stats are interesting from a consumer adoption of Netbooks standpoint, but I don’t think the stats accurately reflect one highly probable reality: many people will buy netbooks instead of buying a new full-sized notebook PC. Pricegrabber.com cites the fact that all of the consumers polled who currently own a Netbook, 91% also own a laptop and 87% own a desktop. This is not a real stretch since very few U.S. households don’t already own at least one computer. Those stats also indicate that many netbook owners own both a laptop and a desktop.

According to the stats, 1 in 10 consumers purchased a Netbook. If you dig a little deeper in the survey, you’ll see that Netbooks represent 19% of all laptops sold on Pricegrabber.com during December 2008. 15% of all laptop purchases on Pricegrabber.com during November 2008 were Netbooks. One thing the survey doesn’t indicate is how many people purchasing Netbooks during those months ALSO purchased some other form factor.

Pricegrabber extrapolates from their data that consumers need more than one form factor because the Netbooks can’t handle local computing functions. While I wouldn’t edit video on a Netbook, or design a multi-layer Photoshop image, there’s not much I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing on my Netbook. I went 10 days with an HP Mini 1000 as my only PC and could have easily gone longer if necessary.

Read the full survey on Netbooks (PDF)

How about you? Do you have a Netbook? Would you replace your current notebook with a Netbook or do you need both?

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I just got the renewal notice for my Google Apps Premier Edition account, which means I’ve almost hit the one year mark of relying on Google for various aspects of my JakeLudington.com domain. The question is, will I renew?

It took me almost 9 months of that year to get around to enabling the email portion of my account, which essentially moved all my JakeLudington.com mail off of my web server and onto a Gmail server. When I finally did it, I was thrilled. Google Apps does a better job of filtering mail than Outlook 2007. By filtering, I don’t mean handling spam, I mean sorting mail in a logical fashion. I don’t believe in inbox zero, I’m a firm believer in smart sorting of mail to get things categorized without touching anything I don’t need to. Gmail rocks for email sorting. For that reason alone I will definitely renew my Premier Edition account. Having Calendar and other domain functionality tied in is gravy.

Outsourcing my email server may be one of the smartest decisions I’ve ever made as a small business owner.

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I’m still wading through video footage from CES, so most of it will start showing up this weekend. I don’t travel with a crew of editors, which means my time at the show is largely spent looking for interesting things and then I scramble to process it all once I get back, this year is no exception.

The most significant change for me at CES this year: how I got there. Steve Broback from Parnassus Group invited me to join a group of bloggers riding on the LoveSac bus from the Bay Area to Las Vegas. If you’ve never had the pleasure of sitting in a LoveSac, you don’t really understand how great this is – these things are comfy. The company specializes in beanbag style chairs and sectional furniture that you mix and match to build your own couch and love seat combinations. The entire bus is outfitted with this furniture, which makes the bus more like traveling by living room.

All was good until the alternator failed about 90 miles outside of Las Vegas, which is basically the middle of nowhere. We exhausted all options for hiring a car to come get us, resorting to Twitter to save the day. The kind folks from 12 Seconds drove 90 miles and picked 4 of the 8 passengers up after reading of our plight on Twitter. I haven’t used their video service, but I’m guessing their support must be phenomenal. The other half of us were rescued by the store manager from the Las Vegas LoveSac retail location. After leaving Burlingame, CA about 3pm, I arrived at my hotel at 8:15am the next day. If the LoveSac furniture hadn’t been comfy, the breakdown would have been far less pleasant.

The rest of the week was far less interesting by comparison. Palm announced their new Pre phone, which is awesome, but it’s just another touch screen phone. Sony announced a new Viao which is incredibly small, but it’s only marginally better than the netbook class of computers because it integrates 3G wireless and a GPS. A personal highlight for me was meeting Dr. Dre during the Beats Tour in-ear headphone announcement. Love or hate hip-hop, Dr. Dre is one of the most influential producers of the past 30 years. The headphones sound great too!

In spite of the troubles on the way to CES, when it came time to leave, I found myself back on the LoveSac bus. The number of riders dropped from 8 to 4, with three of the original crew and one newcomer, along with the two LoveSac representatives who handled driving duties. The return trip was relatively quiet as we all took advantage of onboard WiFi to get work done between stints of watching movies on the 10 screens on the bus. I’m currently debating about ordering some LoveSac furniture for my Seattle office, although that might increase my likelihood of napping.

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It’s great to see that you are part of a very generous group. The people who entered the HP Magic Giveaway shared extremely generous suggestions for what they would do with all the gear if selected. It’s come down to that time where selecting the recipient of all this great gear is necessary. I’d love to give to everyone of you who entered, but of course I only have on bundle of HP computers and accessories to give. For this giveaway, that lucky person is Elaine Jordan from Denver, CO. You can read Elaine’s entry and all the other entries here.

Those of you who didn’t win still have many chances to enter one of the HP Magic Giveaways still going on. HackCollege and The Gadgeteer will announce winners tomorrow. Techie Diva, Notebooks.com, and Geek.com all started new giveaways today. And we haven’t even reached the halfway mark yet. So if you’re looking for some awesome upgrades, now is a great chance to visit these other sites and share in the HP Magic.

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Update #2 (6 December 2008): 4pm has passed and the selection process is underway. It may take a bit to validate the hundreds of entries to make sure they have all followed the rules put forth below.

Update (6 December 2008): I’m starting to get emails from people asking when the giveaway announcement will be made today. Expect an announcement at approximately 4pm Pacific time.

Several great contests have already been announced in the HP Magic Giveaway. November 28 Contests started at Gear Live, Bleeping Computer, and Windows Connected. November 29 saw contests launched by Thoughts on Poetics & Tech and Morningside Mom. Today Neowin and Boston Pocket PC join me in announcing HP Magic Giveaway contests.

In case you missed the original announcement about this giveaway, each of 50 sites are giving away a $6000 hardware package that includes 4 HP computers and a bunch of other great peripherals. The package also includes a number of software offerings from Microsoft and their Windows Live team. You can see complete details of the hardware and software included on the official HP Magic Giveaway site.

One common thread among the HP Magic Giveaway contests is the idea that this huge prize deserves to be shared. Most of us don’t really need 4 computers at home, but we all know a person or an organization who could really use some help. For my giveaway, I’m asking you to tell me about who you would share some of this great hardware and software with and why. The winner will be selected randomly because it’s too difficult to judge the merit of one person’s reasons for sharing against another. As long as it’s feasible, I’ll be delivering the hardware to the selected winner in person. As a bonus, I’m donating an hour of my time to either help you set up this new gear or solving some existing computer frustration.

Contest rules:

1) You must be subscribed to Jake Ludington’s Digital Lifestyle newsletter on 6 December 2008 when the winner is announced. If you’re not already subscribed, you can subscribe here.

2) You must post a comment to the official contest announcement (this page) about who (person or organization) you would share the prize with and why. Include city, state, and country in the body of your comment. Your real name and the same email address you subscribe to the newsletter with must be used in the comment entry form so that you can be contacted if you are selected.

3) You may receive up to two additional entries by doing the following:
Additional entry #1: Follow me on Twitter, link to the contest page in a tweet by using this link: http://bit.ly/JLHPMagic and #JLHPMagic somewhere in your tweet. Send me an email from your subscribed email address notifying me of your Twitter username.
Additional entry #2: The second way to get an additional entry is to link to this contest page from your blog, Myspace, Facebook, site, or other online presence using the code below. Send me an email from your subscribed email address notifying me of the location of your link.

<a href=”http://www.jakeludington.com/life/2008/official-hp-magic-giveaway-announcement/”>Jake Ludington’s HP Magic Giveaway</a>

The winner will be selected at random from those people who meet the entry requirements. The winner will be announced on 6 December 2008. If the winner is from the United States, I will deliver the prize to your door and provide an hour of free computer help barring any unforeseen circumstances. If the winner lives outside the United States, the prize will be shipped to your doorstep minus me and the computer help. I’m footing the bill for the travel (not HP or Microsoft), and while I’d love to roundtrip to somewhere more exotic than 100 miles outside Albuquerque, it’s just not feasible this month.

Go forth and share the magic.

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