Jenny Craig: Year 2 - Week Twenty Nine

Well, up another 0.6lbs. Have to try to stop this trend...the chili cookoff at work didn't help, but at least I won second place! Ok...focus....

Jenny Craig: Year 2 - Week Twenty Seven and Twenty Eight

My brother and his family were in town last week so I skipped Jenny...and ate way too much. I did go today, however, and I was only up 0.6 lbs, which frankly surprises me. I was expecting a much higher gain. Hopefully it won't show up next week!

Anyway, back on track now.

Jenny Craig: Year 2 - Week Twenty Six

Woo hoo! Down 3.2 pounds this week! Now that's more like it! Total = 47.2 down :-)

Jenny Craig: Year 2 - Week Twenty Five

Bah. Up 1.6 pounds this week. Probably due to making pizzas, having some cake...and eating it too :-)

Time to buckle down again.

Jenny Craig: Year 2 - Week Twenty Four

Last week I was down 0.2 pounds. This week I was up 0.2 pounds. We'll call it a draw.

Review: Seidio Ultimate Screen Guard

I recently reviewed a Seidio Innocase II Surface case for the HTC Evo 4G Android smartphone and gave it a thumbs up. But the Innocase only protects the body of the phone. What about that beautiful 4.3" screen? Enter the Seidio Ultimate Screen Guard:

Now, I have to say, I am typically not a "screen protector" type of guy. I have tried a few of them in the past on other phones, and was never happy with the feel, or worse yet, the way it changed the look of my phone's screen. The only thing worse than using a phone with an orange peel screen is using one made by a different kind of fruit all together (see what I did there?)

So I didn't have very high hopes for yet another screen protector when I received Seidio's Ultimate Screen Guard. But the fact that it didn't require any liquids or other adhesives to stick to the screen got me curious, at least.

Features
The back of the package lists several features for the Seidio Ultimate Screen Guard.

These are:

• Made from quality, Japanese materials to resist scratches or tears [Ok, so far so good]
• Only 0.1mm thin [Excellent]
• Designed precisely for your device for a perfect fit [Yup]
• Advanced material adheres to screen without glue or messy liquids [Bingo]
• Anti-glare and anti-fingerprint finish (Anti-Glare Model Only) [Mine was not this model]
• Enhanced clarity without reducing touch sensitivity [See below]
• No orange peel and rainbow marks [See below]
• Simple installation with included cleaning cloth and application card [See below]

Enhanced Clarity without reducing touch sensitivity

This screen protector is hard to see, which is a good thing. It is very thin, yet feels very durable. Does it enhance the clarity of my screen? Meh. Not really. It doesn't really make it LESS clear, either. But I can certainly vouch for no loss of touch sensitivity. It's as if the thing isn't even on your screen. It doesn't quite feel like the naked screen, but it's certainly better than any of the previous screen protectors I've tried. Less drag than a Zagg, for sure. Which is a good thing.

No orange peel and rainbow marks

Definitely no orange peel effect. Smooth as silk. A+ there. I do see some rainbow marks, however. Not permanently on the screen, mind you, but the fingerprints that do accumulate on the screen sometimes show a slight rainbow effect at certain angles. Wipe it off and it goes away, but they will come back. It's almost like the finger oils start to group on certain parts of the screen where you swipe. The screen protector I was sent was NOT the Anti-Glare/Anti-Fingerprint version, so perhaps that is not an issue with that model. And this is not really an "issue" since a good wipe clears it up, but it needs to be said.

Simple installation with included cleaning cloth and application card
Ok, first, I have to let it be known that I am notoriously bad at putting on screen protectors. Always have been. I inevitably get dust under them, bubbles, hair, whatever. Always. It's probably a skill that I simply lack, but installing the Seidio Ultimate Screen Guard was no different. Granted, I did not follow the directions exactly, which is obviously my problem, but I got tons of dust between it and the screen. I ended up having to wash the back of the screen protector a few times and let it air dry completely before trying again. But I finally did it successfully. I can't ding Seidio for this...the instructions are simple and should take no more than 5 minutes. This is all me.

What's comes with it?
The Seidio Ultimate Screen Guard comes in a little plastic envelope that includes the screen guard itself, an application card with instructions on it, and a microfiber cloth to clean your screen before applying the screen protector.

The screen protector is in its own protective bag and consists of a piece of plastic with the Evo screen shape cut into it.

You have to peel off the bottom and slowly roll it onto the screen while peeling it off the backing. This is the part I missed. I peeled the whole thing off at once then tried to apply it. Don't make that mistake.

Feel after some use
I've had this almost two weeks now and there are honestly times I forget it's on. Combined with the Innocase, it's almost imperceptible. My only gripe, and it's minor, is the little rainbowing I mentioned above.

Pros

• Very thin
• Little drag, feels natural
• You can tell it protects the screen, so there's a feeling of comfort having it on.
• Easily removable. Just use sticky tape on one corner to lift it off the screen and it comes right off, cleanly. Easy to reapply.

Cons

• Slight rainbow effect from fingerprint smudges
• It feels great, but still not QUITE like the naked screen.

Conclusion

This is the best screen protector I have ever used. It's the first one I have ever forgotten was on my screen, and the fact it doesn't use liquids is a huge plus for me. Is it as good as the naked screen? Nothing ever is, but this comes very close.

If you want a quality, hardly noticeable way to protect your Evo's gorgeous screen, I recommend trying the Seidio Ultimate Screen Guard.

Jenny Craig: Year 2 - Week Twenty Three

Down only 0.2 pounds this week. Not bad considering I was in San Francisco all week at a conference.

Jenny Craig: Year 2 - Week Twenty Two

Well, after going to a friend's wedding this past weekend, I'm up 2.4 :-)

But I've already started working on getting it back down. I hate the gym, but it does provide results!

Review: Seidio Innocase II Surface for HTC Evo

Seidio is one of the leading 3rd party phone accessory companies catering to gadget freaks everywhere. From extra batteries and cables, to protective screen guards and cases. They were kind enough to send me an Innocase II Surface for my Evo to review, and I'm kinda glad they did.



Installation
Couldn't be easier. Slide on the top half, then slide on the bottom half. Boom. Done. I recommend cleaning the phone of dust/fibers/lint before installing, as sliding the parts on with anything abrasive caught inside could potentially scratch it.

Quality
The quality is great. The case is solid, with a good grip, and feels very sturdy. You certainly feel safer with this case on. After using it a few times during a call, I did notice a bit of creaking if I shifted the phone around in my hand. Nothing major or distracting, but thought I would mention it. This creaking is due to the fact that it is made of two separate peaces snapped together. There are tolerances involved, and even the tiniest gaps would cause some creaking. Is it a problem? No. On the plus side, I was informed by Seidio that they are now inspecting all cases thoroughly before they ship as a precaution to eliminate any possible defective cases. Can't ask for more than that.

A big plus is the inside felt lining, which helps prevent scratching and cushions the phone nicely. However, I wish it would span across the entire inside of the case. For some reason, it only covers the inner parts, leaving the edges unfelted.

Size
There's nothing like using your phone in its natural state, unencumbered by anything that adds size or weight. That being said, the Innocase II Surface adds just enough to protect the phone from scratches or minor drops, but not enough to make a huge difference in size. I'm not saying it's not noticeable...you will certainly know you are using a case...but the trade off is only minor for the feeling of safety you will gain from keeping it on.

To put it in perspective, I originally bought the HTC Messenger Vertical Pouch from HTCPedia since I wanted to use my Evo bare. And that pouch is quite nice. What I didn't forsee was how big that pouch was in my pocket. It was significantly larger than the bare phone. The Innocase, however, is MUCH smaller in my pocket...almost as comfortable as the bare phone. Almost.

Removing the Case
At first, I was having trouble removing the phone from the case. The two pieces interlocked and it seemed extremely challenging to try to remove it. The instructions that came with it said to hold the top half and wiggle the bottom half. Well that just didn't work for me. A successful method I came up with was to use a guitar pick to slide into the crease between the two halves...but that was not practical, and it was still a little difficult to get it right.

I finally saw a post on an Android forum that mentioned pressing down on the middle part of the bottom half, then sliding the top right off. Brilliant. Basically, the bottom half contains a little plastic clip that grabs on to the top half. By pressing down on that spot, the clip loosens and the top slides right off. Watch the video to see how it's done. Very easy.

Seidio tells me they have listened to the feedback of their customers and have included a better install/remove instruction sheet for the case. That's good, because what they suggested in the original instructions was near impossible to get to work. Hopefully, the new instructions will mirror what I have suggested :-)

Fingerprints
Generally, the case is a matte color, so you would think it doesn't pick up too many fingerprints or smudges. It certainly picks up less than the screen, but it does pick up some. You can see it a bit in my video. Now I don't know if my fingers are greasier than most, but they certainly do leave prints all over my phone, bare or in this case. It's less on the case, but they still show up. I'm not overly concerned here, however. The prints wipe off easily, especially with a moist towel (with the case off, please...don't "wash" your case while the phone is still in it!)

Conclusion
Overall, I give the Seidio Innocase II Surface a solid 8 out of 10. It's size is great, and it provides great protection, while managing to stay stylish in the process. I got the black one, but Seidio offers them in blue, pink, burgundy, and more...a nice touch. I wish it didn't pick up my fingerprints so readily, and the slight creaking when squeezing your phone a bit are really the only two minor issues I had with this case. For now, this is my main case (along with a Seidio Ultimate Screen Guard - review to come). My leather messenger pouch is good for when I need to pack my phone in my gym bag, for example, since it will offer a bit more protection as it fully covers the screen, but for day to day use, I highly recommend the Seidio Innocase II Surface.

Review of the HTC Messenger Vertical Pouch for the HTC Evo 4G

Having gotten one of the Google I/O HTC Evo's before the official launch, I'm a lucky man. The drawback, however, is that none of the official accessories for the Evo have been released yet, so I've been carrying this thing in my pocket without protection. With the huge 4.3" screen on this bad boy, I'm constantly afraid of scratches, drops, nicks, and other unthinkable occurrences.

One of the first things I did (after playing with the Evo for a day) is go searching for a case. I scoured forums, searched Google, eBay, Amazon, etc. It wasn't until I came across HTCPedia.com that I found what I was looking for. It's the HTC Messenger Vertical Pouch, presumably made for the HTC HD2, which has similar dimensions to the Evo, and now being marketed as for the HD2 as well as for the Evo.

The case is elegantly simple...a soft leather pouch, open on one end, with a cloth material inside that supposedly helps wipe the smudges off your screen as you pull out the phone. The fit is nice and snug, but not too tight. It won't fall out by itself, but it is still easy to remove by hand.

The leather looks nice, and smells like real leather, but not overwhelmingly so. The inside cloth material is soft, almost like suede. As for cleaning your screen of smudges, well it does help, but it certainly does not completely wipe them off. I suppose with repeated removals and insertions it will eventually clean the screen, but when I remove the phone, I use it and add more smudges. So in practice, the "clean your screen" is really more about removing minor bits of dust than it is about removing finger smudges.

Using this case, I have no fear of throwing the phone in my pocket along with my keys. Sure, it adds some extra bulk, but it's safe.

Pros:

• High quality manufacturing - well stitched, nice leather
• Form fitting - helps keep the Evo protected, won't fall out accidentally
• Soft cloth interior - helps keep the dust off the screen
• Removable - use the phone in its naked glory, then put it back in the pouch when done

Cons:

• Makes the Evo bigger in your pocket
• Contains a small label on the inside that I'm afraid will somehow scratch the screen if I insert the phone facing backwards. I'm probably being paranoid, though.
• To charge the phone while in the case, you have to insert the phone upside down, which could turn the phone on accidentally if the power button is pushed.

Overall, I am very pleased with this pouch since it lets me still use the phone naked (the phone, not me) and provides a nice protective "house" when I'm not using the phone.


For more pictures, please view my Picasa gallery.

Fring, Skype, Android, Evo

Today was a milestone. I placed and received my first video call from my HTC Evo smartphone. Amazing. This is Jetsons stuff we're talking about.

Fring released an app for Android phones that allows video calls over Wi-Fi/3G/4G. It also integrates with Skype and allows you to connect to any of your Skype contacts as well. So I connected with a Skype friend who was at his desktop PC running Skype with a desktop USB camera connected. Bing, bang, boom, we were video conferencing! My screen showed his video with my video in the corner, a la picture in picture.

Of course, the HTC Evo has a front facing camera that makes this all very convenient. Other phones without a front facing camera can presumably still use it, but will have to point their screens away from themselves when making a call.

Video quality was ok...a few skips here and there but totally usable. I walked around my office showing it off to coworkers, who were pretty impressed.

I then friended someone else with an Evo from a forum I frequent and we also had a video chat, Evo-to-Evo. He was located in Kansas City, while I was in Redwood City, California. He walked outside and showed me around. Video got choppy at that point since he was on Wi-Fi and was losing his signal. But it worked. And it worked well enough to be a usable product.

Now onto the flying cars that collapse into briefcases...

Jenny Craig: Year 2 - Week Twenty One

Ok, two weeks in a row! Down 2.8 pounds this week! This makes a total of 47 pounds lost so far :-)

Some pics of my HTC Evo :-)

I took some pics of my HTC Evo using my HTC Hero :-)

HTC Evo pics

The Sprint Evo 4G

Found this in a forum post on Android Central and thought it was interesting...a Flash feature overview of The Sprint Evo, the upcoming uberphone from HTC. This thing's a monster. Of course, by the magic of the interwebs, this comment will live forever, even when the Evo is to future geeks what the iPhone is to us now. Oh snap! Did I just diss the iPhone? Ok, I meant the Motorola Razr. It's what the Razr is to us now. ;-)

Jenny Craig: Year 2 - Week Twenty

Yay, down 2.2 pounds this week! Working out helps :-)

The lazy CEO’s 10-step guide to crowdsourcing every business task

Saw this in my Google Reader and thought it was very interesting!

The lazy CEO’s 10-step guide to crowdsourcing every business task: "

Lukas Biewald (pictured left) is cofounder and chief executive of CrowdFlower, a startup that helps businesses crowdsource small tasks. Vaughn Hester (pictured below) is an account manager/analyst at CrowdFlower.

Whether you are starting a new company or are just the laziest CEO ever, there’s great news for you — the explosion in crowdsourcing strategies and solutions means you might be able to get started without any full-time employees! If you have projects or jobs that need to be completed quickly and inexpensively, here are some tips for getting the crowd to do your heavy lifting:

1. You need a name for your business. One iPhone developer put the task of naming his e-reader out to the crowd through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, and $27.50 and 500 responses later came up with the name iReadFast. That’s even cheaper than the Silicon Valley tradition of getting a few friends together with a few cases of beer before godaddy.com crushes your dreams.


2. Now your great new name needs an eye-catching logo. 99 Designs helps companies crowdsource graphic design work to a broad network of artists and designers who compete to submit the best idea. You offer a payment price for the best logo, then pick the one you like best from the submissions.


3. Once you cover those basics, you probably need lots of money. Immediately. Crowdsource your funding with Kickstarter, a funding platform for artists, designers, filmmakers, musicians, journalists, inventors, explorers and more. You name the amount of money you need to do something; people in turn pledge amounts in support of this project or business. If you receive enough pledges, your donors’ payments are processesed and you receive the full amount. You can incentivize your crowdfunders in creative ways with items like t-shirts, books, etc.


4. In the digital age, you will probably need code development or programming. TopCoder claims to have been crowdsourcing since 2001, before there was a name for this phenomenon. It runs competitions with prizes that enable participants to compete for the best software, development and employment services solutions. To make an amazing webpage, oDesk can connect you with a web developer (or any other sort of freelancer you may seek). Its tools enable you to view progress on the project as work is completed.


5. No product will be successful without customers – and that means marketing. Go to Trada, a search engine marketing and optimization company that lets the crowd pick the best keywords for your company or campaign.


6. With your website and your AdWords account, you have a solid online presence. Find leads in the industries you are targeting with Jigsaw (recently acquired by Salesforce.com). It lets people upload contact information in exchange for the ability to download other people’s contact information. If you want all the phone numbers of all the execs, there’s a way to make it happen. Jigsaw has what it claims to be the world’s largest database of contact information.


7. Now that you have these leads, it’s time to take a good look in the mirror and decide whether or not you really want to call them all. Chances are you don’t, which is right about when you want to visit LiveOps. The company specializes in call center outsourcing where you can set the script that you want “your” sales people to use. It has thousands of people (many of whom are stay at home mothers) in the United States who make the calls from their own homes.


8. In the inevitable event that your customers get angry, use Get Satisfaction, where they can help each other. Get Satisfaction gives your customers a place to ask questions and voice complaints about your product. Often, your customer is the best person to respond to an issue another customer is having.


9. Now that you have a healthy business you need to make sure that you invest in R&D to stay ahead of the competition. This is the point at which you want to visit InnoCentive, a company that allows you to outsource research and development of any kind. It lets you set bounties for the discovery of new things. This could range from a new compression algorithm to a new drug.


10. By now you are undoubtedly big enough and prosperous enough to have your own corporate social responsibility efforts. Samasource lets you send microtasks to youth, refugees and women in developing countries. Your rich friends who are iPhone/iPad users can support this via GiveWork (iTunes link), an app developed with CrowdFlower that allows users to donate their time to charity by double checking the work done by Samasource workers.

Crowdsourcing isn’t just a buzzword –- it’s an effective way for companies to get started fast and iterate quickly with less overhead. All of these companies offer a service with less upfront commitment than traditional outsourcing -– and that advantage really shines when it comes to early stage companies.

Tags: crowdsourcing, Mechanical Turk

Companies: 99 Designs, Amazon.com, Crowdflower, Get Satisfaction, Innocentive, Jigsaw, Kickstarter, Liveops, oDesk, Samsource, TopCoder, Trada

EVO 4G FAQs | AndroidGuys

This is the REAL Jesus Phone!

4G/3G/WiFi
4.3" Screen
GPS
HDMI Out (720p)
720p Video Recording
1.3MP Front Facing Camera
8MP Back Facing Camera
Create a wireless hotspot (3G or 4G)
Simultaneous voice/data
1GHz Snapdragon Processor
Digital Compass/Proximity & Motion Sensors
FM Tuner
microSD card Slot
Android 2.1

EVO 4G FAQs | AndroidGuys

Jenny Craig: Year 2 - Week Nineteen

Oh well. Up a pound. But still down in general since I lost the last two weeks. So this better be a good week!

Flash Player on a Nexus One

Pretty cool. Seems usable enough.

The results are in...

I recently entered a video in AndroidCentral's "Win Phil's Nexus One" contest, and after a week of voting, my video won! They were actually giving away two Nexus One's, so two of us won. Here is the announcement: http://www.androidcentral.com/and-nexus-one-winners-are

Thanks to everyone who voted for me!