ReservePower
Latest
Reserve Power: When inventor meets informercial, Part 2
Ross Rubin contributes Reserve Power, a column focused on personal perspectives and products. Last week's Reserve Power took you behind the scenes of technology and infomercials, and this week we're bringing it to its natural conclusion. Catch up by reading last week's installment here, and catch the rest just below.
Reserve Power: When inventor meets informercial, Part 1
Ross Rubin contributes Reserve Power, a column focused on personal perspectives and products. They come from across the country to a conference room at Telebrands, the Fairfield, NJ-based infomercial marketer that serves as the arbiter in the TV show Pitchmen. It was Inventors Day, an event that the company holds around the country about every six weeks. Those who submit the best ideas to inventorsday@telebrands.com are invited to present. At stake, the chance to design Telebrands' next hit product and become a millionaire. And all that stood between them and fortune was a convincing pitch to the judging panel (made up of CEO A.J. Khubani, his wife Poonam Khubani, and marketing advisor Don Braca) and a permanently installed five-foot long model of a PedEgg -- invented by the Telebrands CEO in '97 -- signed by company well-wishers.
Reserve Power: Stand Off, Part 2
Ross Rubin contributes Reserve Power, a column focused on personal perspectives and products. Last week's Reserve Power introduced six handset stands for propping up your miniature movie theater. This week's column takes on a half-dozen more, names my favorites, and concludes with a chart detailing which phones fit which stands.
Reserve Power: Stand Off, Part 1
Ross Rubin contributes Reserve Power, a column focused on personal perspectives and products. With handset screens getting larger and applications such as streaming primetime shows and video chat becoming more prevalent, it's not surprising that some handsets such as the HTC Evo 4G include a built-in kickstand. Most phones, though, suffer from LifeCall commercial syndrome –- when they've fallen, they can't get up. To offer some assistance, a whole cottage industry of pocketable products – many with inventive designs -- have appeared to let you enjoy your handset's screen without your hands in the way. But how universal are they? I tested a variety of popular and unusually-shaped handsets -- including the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, Droid 2, Droid X, BlackBerry Bold and BlackBerry Torch, Palm Pre, HP Veer, Samsung Captivate and the monstrous Samsung Infuse -- finding, for example, that some phones fit in some stands only when their physical keyboards were extended. Surprised at how well a few of the stands held up, I even tried them with a few tablets, including the BlackBerry PlayBook, Apple iPad and Motorola Xoom. This column will introduce the first six devices after the break, while the next Reserve Power will discuss several more, conclude with my favorites, and link to a spreadsheet detailing which devices and stands paired appropriately with one another.
Reserve Power: Paper 2010, The Inkgadget Review
Over the past two weeks we've been incorporating a lightweight flexible technology into our workflow. Usually, of course, just about everything we write is routed through a processor, operating system and application and immediately reflected on an LCD using some multitasking user interface. However, we have been seeking a way to organize to-do lists on a separate display so that they are not lost in the course of a day's work or taking up undue screen real estate. As it happens, we were invited to an exclusive press event extolling the latest version of paper. Paper is a thin, foldable substance that can accommodate a wide array of styli to produce words and graphics. The catch is that, much like printer cartridges, these styli must be refilled with ink or replaced. But there is a wide ecosystem of these devices that are broadly available. The developers of paper have really put a lot of forethought into a wide array of uses. The tool has almost no learning curve and data entry is so simple that young children will have no problems mastering its basics. Paper yields high contrast when used with the appropriate ink and consumes no power. And, simply put, there is no display on the market that can fold as flexibly as paper, allowing us to slip a small sheet imperceptibly into a shirt pocket or wallet.
Reserve Power: Steady now
Ross Rubin contributes Reserve Power, a column that presents personal perspectives on personal technology. He also contributes Switched On each week. While image stabilization has come a long way, a good tripod or mount can make all the difference in some photos, particularly shots that demand long exposure. There are scores of options on the market, and tripods models catering to pros can cost thousands of dollars. But for those who are looking for some support, particularly on the go in situations where a traditional tripod or monopod is impractical, there are lots of novel products on the market that can help bridge the gap. Note that several of these products are designed to work only with compact digital cameras and camcorders. With that caveat in mind, here are some of my favorites.
Reserve Power: Field photo backup for the rest of us
Welcome to the inaugural Reserve Power on Engadget Alt. In contrast to Switched On -- the column Ross Rubin has written for nearly six years - this sporadic, gluten-free column will serve as a home for pieces that tend to be more personal, less polemical, and more like features than forensics. You might consider them akin to an overengineered iPod classic, but they go by many names, including "multimedia photo viewer," "data storage unit," "portable digital photo manager" and "portable multimedia storage and player." Battery-powered portable photo backup devices have become an important tool in the bags of many advanced amateur and pro photographers. They allow for a speedy backup of multi-gigabyte memory cards on the go, providing an extra layer of data safety. And many of them have color screens that are 3.5" or larger, enabling them to be used for spot checks of photos. The niche has attracted a range of companies. With the exception of Epson, though, they are mostly unknown, particularly outside the world of photography enthusiasts -- Digital Foci, Jojo, and MemoryKick, Sanho and Wolverine.
