So there I was at the Germantown Court arriving at 6pm for the 6:30 appointed court time.   See I really wasn’t in trouble.  I was standing in for a good friend of mine, Manish.  But he wasn’t in trouble either.  He simply came to Memphis on a business trip to do his taxes a couple months ago.  I loaned him my VW Jetta which is garaged more often than not as it is a car that is worth more to me then the couple thousand I’d ge selling it.   It’s a spare.  However a year back when I purchased a new vehicle I simply forgot to renew the tags on the VW.

Fast forward to 2 months back.   Manish drives the car to an appointment and gets pulled over for expired tags.  They give Manish a ticket of which he passes to me to stand in for him at court.   I arrived at 6pm.  I was home at 10pm.   Thankfully I had my new Kindle with me.  The excruciating pain of waiting in line had been turned into a wonderful journey with Chris Anderson’s  ”Free”.   So I was able to crunch an incredible amount of info and not let the city of Germantown’s inefficiencies waste the precious minutes of my life.

I could have just had the book you might add…true, but only sort of.  About once an hour I’d take a short break and read blogs that I had subscribed to or bounce over to a PDF market study that I’ve been reading on the Manhattan rental market.   This would have taken many more atoms than my arms could have held.

I won’t bore you with the details of the outcome of the court issues but let’s just say that they wasted a lot of people’s time…but not mine.  Cheers Amazon!  Everything about the Kindle is right.

Kindle: Amazon’s 6″ Wireless Reading Device (Latest Generation)

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Finally the travel PC I’ve been looking for.   I had an Asus Eee PC or eee PC or whatever.  I’ll be honest, not a fan.   But I recently had to buy some new equipment for travel.  I was in (believe it or not) Costco when I found this item.  I had read about it and after trying several ultra-mobiles I had all but given up.  I snapped up the HP Mini for under $400 to my amazement.  With Windows XP included that meant no problems with my Aircard for mobile internet service.

First off the portability is one of the best I’ve seen out of an actual useable ultra-mobile with an 8.9″ monitor, tasteful rounded corners, sleek design, dark color, and weighing in at only 2 and quarter lbs, you can’t go wrong. (Actual dimensions are:   10.3″(L) x 6.56″(W) x .99″(H)

Then on to function after form:

• Windows XP
• Webcam/Microphone for you social networkers
• 1 gig of RAM
• 60 gig hard drive
• Keyboard 92% of normal size!  (Bigger than my Fujitsu Lifebook that is my everyday laptop/tablet
• 2 USB ports
• 1.60 GHZ  Intel Atom Processor
• 3 Cell Lithiom Polymer Battery

I’ve only taken it a couple places since I just picked it up a few weeks back, but it traveled well.  It’s like having an extra book with you.  I’m impressed.  A couple of attractive flight attendents thought it was cute (that’s worth something).

A few times I forgot it was in my bag just because of its light weight.  If you are in the hunt for a new ultra-mobile or a good internet device to travel with, look no further.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Oh what a beautiful briefcase.  The new Jack Spade Waxwear Computer Filecase.  I love this bag.  It was a gift to me from my spouse who is a huge Kate Spade fan.  I happen to already own 2 other Jack Spade bags.  One of which is a canvas field messanger bag, and the other which a small Waxwear material bag of the same family as this one.   I feel like I have found the perfect bag.  Now I’m not going metrosexual on you.   This bag isn’t for sissies.  It has tough rugged material which will work great if you need a versatile friend on your travels or your daily commute.

The inner pocket is perfect for a few files, while the outer pocket easily carries my Fujitsu Lifebook when I’m home or my small HP Mini on the go.  Additionally there were well thought out places to put an iPod, a few powercords, pens, and multiple zippered pockets for optimal separation. You can pick one up in Soho or at your nearest luxury department store.  (Sticker $395)

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I love the iPod Touch

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I love my Chumby.   You either totally agree with me or are now wondering what the hell I’m talking about.  I actually had to get one as a gift from my mom because I wasn’t really sure how to explain to my friends that I literally bought this thing.  And maybe “this thing” is the best description.  But within 24 hours of firing it up, I basically tossed my alarm clock in the garage because a Chumby is  basically the only real upgrade to the alarm clock since the “clock radio” or maybe the “digital display”.  This device is going to make the alarm clock in your next hotel room seem untrustworthy.   So let’s take the Chumby for a ride.

Now this will at least give you a visual of the damn thing.   It is essentially an internet device that functions at the minimum of the following:

• Alarm Clock – complete with your choice of waking up to any internet radio station you can find.
• Internet Radio device
• iPod docking
• RSS to read all your feeds
• and like a million other things that your computer can do; watch movie previews, read news, get the weather, blissful screen savers, and more.

So this device for like $200 bucks plugs in and has a slide show of widgets playing when you start it.  You select the widgets online at Chumby.com.

The Chumby is easy to set up requires a traditional outlet.  It is seemingly perfect next to the bed.  I have personally replaced my cell phone that was by my bed as I used to wake up and grab my phone to read the latest blogs in the morning.   Enter the Chumby with its soft pillow like features almost doesn’t make sense as you expect internet devices to be hard and cold.  Even your best designed Apple products aren’t pillow-like.

It remains to be seen if the Chumby will catch on, but they have sure bet the farm on it.  Only drawbacks seem to be its steep $200 price tag and the onscreen scrolling is a bit slow, but can live with those.

I endorse it with 4.5 out of 5 stars.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

You need this camera.  I just bought the Olympus Stylus 1030 SW, and I love it. This camera can be summed up with the following line:  Shockproof, waterproof, freezeproof, and crushproof, with a wide angle lens.  I love it.   The sleek design is modern industrial and reminds me of my Mercedes G500 truck.  Modern, square, and a bit heavy compared to other cameras (6.3oz).  But you need a tough camera because its a jungle out there.

I’m tired of dropping cameras, and them busting.  How about taking a camera to the beach and having to consistently worry about the inevitable sand?  If you’re anything like me, when you are at the beach you don’t want to stress about all the things back home at the office or with your business, let alone worry about the sand.  Well, worry no more. 

The wide for me is a must.  I’m in the real estate business and a travel a lot.  I hate having to backup and play the photographer shuffle when I’m trying to catch a wide shot.  I had a kodak wide lens that constantly was falling apart and finally it just quit working.  Now I have a tank.  Drop proof up to 6.6ft.  (Don’t ask me what happens at 6.7).  How about underwater movie mode?   And when you are done, just rinse it out. 

Pick this camera up ASAP and dump your sissy credit card sized camera.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

This is sad but true.  I still use my BlackBerry 8830 world edition.  This thing is semi-reliable, has been dropped a 100 times, offers lighting fast texting, and that’s about it.  I have to admit it.  I’m looking forward to the BlackBerry Storm.  And once I get used to the touch screen, I probably won’t remember the full QWERTY that I adore.  I can text fast.  I laugh when my iPhone friends try to text and constantly fail.  Hey I’m a busy guy.  I own several companies.   I suplemented with an iPod Touch.  Now I do like that.  Until you can give me QWERTY speed on the keys I’m not sure I need to switch.

Although everytime I have take the battery out and restart this thing, I cuss bigtime.  Everyone knows this hack.  No one looked it up.  It was trial and error in its simplist form.  The thing just freezes.  But I’ll take the bad with the good.   If you haven’t gotten a smart phone yet, don’t worry, the pricing is down on these babies and their performance in wartime scenarios is great.  So forget about your iPhone Phriends Phor now and focus on performance.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.